Israel eased restrictions on the Palestinians and unleashed a top diplomat in a damage-control effort after admitting that bombing a Gaza building and killing 14 bystanders, along with a Hamas militant, was a ”mistake.”
In violence early on Thursday, one Israeli was killed and another seriously injured in a shooting attack in the West Bank, according to rescue services and the Israeli military. Gunmen, apparently Palestinians, opened fire on their car near the Jewish settlement of Elei Zahav, south of the Palestinian town of Qalqiliya.
The UN Security Council met to consider condemning Israel for the bombing, just the latest in a string of denunciations from the United States, Europe, the Arab world and the Palestinians. Hamas commander Salah Shehadeh was killed in the attack.
World critics rejected Israel’s explanation that it was aiming only for Shehadeh, charging that Israel’s policy of killing terror suspects is a violation of international law. The most scathing statements, however, centred on the fact that so many bystanders were killed and wounded.
The Israeli military was investigating what went wrong. Military commanders insisted they did not know civilians would be hurt, though they used a one-ton laser-guided bomb on an apartment building.
On Wednesday, Palestinians pulled the bodies of three children out of the rubble. They were already counted among the dead.
Relatives did not think their bodies could be recovered.
More than 100 people were injured in the bombing, most of them in adjoining structures damaged by the bomb.
Countering the wave of international criticism, Israel sent its best-known peace advocate, Nobel laureate Shimon Peres, on a tour of the offices of foreign news media in Jerusalem, where he said, over and over, that the bombing was a mistake, ”and I cannot explain mistakes.”
Peres, the foreign minister, said that as goodwill gestures, Israel would release some of the funds it has been keeping from the Palestinian Authority and would allow 4 000 Palestinian workers to enter Israel. Also, he said, curfews in West Bank cities and towns would be lifted for longer periods.
However, the gestures did not mollify the Palestinians, who called the Tuesday bombing a massacre and have been demanding much wider Israeli measures to ease restrictions in the West Bank.
Before the current fighting erupted in September 2000, about 125 000 Palestinians worked in Israel, and Israel regularly transferred millions of dollars of customs and taxes to the Palestinian Authority under terms of interim peace accords.
After suicide bombings in Jerusalem a month ago, Israeli forces took control of seven of the eight main West Bank cities and towns, imposing curfews that confine people to their homes most of the time.
Palestinians demand that Israel pull out of their areas, remove roadblocks and other restrictions and free all their funds. The Israelis say the restrictions are necessary to keep bombers and other attackers out of Israel, and they have refused to turn over the money, charging that the funds would finance terror attacks.
Meanwhile, Israel braced for an expected round of suicide bombings in retaliation for the Gaza attack. Peres said he hoped to press on with talks with Palestinians on security and economic issues – including a Palestinian plan to restart security cooperation – but the Palestinians said no decision had been made about whether or when such meetings might resume.
Peres also said he called the Palestinian finance minister to tell him that about $45-million was being transferred, about 10% of the total amount Israel has withheld in tax revenues, and that Israel had forgiven about $31-million in Palestinian debt to Israeli utilities.
Palestinian officials said that before the bombing, an accord was about to be signed between the Palestinian Authority and militant groups to stop attacks against Israelis, but the Israeli air strike scuttled the pact.
In another development, Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said that even if Arafat appoints a prime minister after a Palestinian state is created, it would not ”limit the authorities” of Arafat.
Shaath, a close confidante of Arafat, said last week that Arafat might appoint a prime minister in the future, an idea seen as a response to US and Israeli demands that Arafat remove himself from power. But Shaath said on Wednesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, ”We are not going to conspire against (Arafat) … just to satisfy the US or Israel.” – Sapa-AP