Nablus, Saturday
HEAVY fighting rocked Nablus overnight, as Israeli helicopter gunships blasted the West Bank city with missiles, causing an unknown number of casualties, local officials said on Saturday.
”We have 10 seriously wounded people in three different parts of the city, particularly in the historic centre,” said Annan Attira, representative for the local government and coordinator of medical assistance there.
”The number of dead is uncertain, (it is) at least 10, but the problem is that the telephone network was cut and we are really out of touch with the families of the victims,” he said.
Meanwhile, the armed wing of radical Islamic militant group Hamas vowed on Saturday an unprecedented revenge against Israel after six of its fighters were killed in an Israeli missile strike.
”It will be a new kind of punishment this time, of an unaccustomed type that will shake their entity and destroy its pillars,” the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.
Six Hamas members were killed on Friday in an Israeli helicopter strike, including a commander said to have masterminded the suicide attack that killed 26 people at the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday.
The Brigades have claimed responsibility for many deadly anti-Israeli attacks in the past.
In other news, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said on Saturday that his country’s army should end its invasion of the West Bank ”as quickly as possible.
”In my opinion, this matter should be ended as quickly as possible and political negotiations begun,” Peres told Israeli public radio.
He was responding to calls by US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday for Israel to withdraw its troops from the West Bank ”without delay.”
”I do not believe that the problem (of terrorism) can be solved solely by military means,” Peres said.
”Even if we succeed in stopping the current evil, we will not stop it from springing up again. The only way to stop it is to deal with the problem at its root,” he added.
”Israel should reflect carefully on whether continuing the (military) operation for one week more, or conversely, shortening it by a week will have decisive consequences on the outcome.”
Following a suicide bombing in northern Israel on March 27, Israel launched a massive invasion of Palestinian-controlled territory in the West Bank and has re-occupied six of the area’s eight major towns.
Neither the White House nor the State Department has issued a firm deadline by which Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is expected to pull his forces from West Bank cities.
Bush urged Israel on Thursday to halt incursions into Palestinian-held territories and withdraw its forces, as he announced that Powell would travel to the region in a bid to win an elusive ceasefire.
Peres, a dovish member of the Labour Party, frequently disagrees with Sharon on policy. – Sapa-AFP