Continuing violence in the Middle East is harmful not just to the people of the region but those outside it as well, United States First Lady Laura Bush said in comments published on Thursday.
The violence is harmful to all, Bush told the London-based pan-Arabic Al-Hayat daily in a rare interview with an Arabic newspaper.
She said that all women want their children to live in peace and dignity, far from poverty and wars.
She also referred to her husband’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly in which he said human beings — Americans, Europeans, Middle Easterners and Africans — share common values.
These values, said the First Lady, concern respect for human beings and the culture of life.
She added that she has great hopes in the future of Arab women, saying women throughout the world want the same things, such as education, in order to become good mothers and successful women.
Bush pointed to statistics showing the potential of educated women to take wise decisions in dealing with their children, adding that Arab women can achieve their objectives to help their countries by working as teachers or in the humanitarian or other fields.
Violence continues
Meanwhile, several violent events were reported in the Middle East.
Palestinian militants in Gaza fired two rockets on Thursday at an Israeli town, wounding at least one woman, Israeli rescue services said.
The rockets landed in two residential areas in the town of Sderot, which is just 1,5km from Gaza and often a target of Palestinian rocket fire, the rescue services said. One woman was lightly wounded by shrapnel.
One of the rockets landed near a school, the rescue services added.
Palestinian militants often fire homemade, highly inaccurate rockets at Israeli towns and cities. The rockets’ warheads have a relatively small amount of explosives, and often cause only damage.
Two Israelis were killed in a rocket attack in June.
Militant shot
A Palestinian militant who fled after a raid on a Jewish settlement in Gaza on Thursday in which three Israeli soldiers were killed was shot dead in a later exchange of fire, military radio said.
Two other militants who took part in the pre-dawn operation to break into the Morag settlement of the southern Gaza Strip were killed in the earlier clashes.
The third had initially managed to evade capture and opened fire at troops as the local area commander was about to address reporters at the scene, almost five hours after the raid.
An Israeli journalist was slightly injured in the exchanges when he was hit in the leg, military sources said.
The latest deaths raised the overall toll since the September 2000 outbreak of the Palestinian uprising to 4 334, including 3 315 Palestinians and 948 Israelis, according to an AFP toll.
Troops break up barrier protest
Five Palestinians were wounded on Wednesday when Israeli troops fired rubber bullets to break up a protest against construction of the West Bank barrier, witnesses said.
An AFP correspondent said about 1 000 people were trying to stop bulldozers from levelling land in Beit Awwa, a farming village near the southern West Bank town of Hebron.
Troops also fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. Witnesses said three Israeli activists protesting with the villagers had been arrested.
Work on the southern section of the barrier began earlier this month following a double suicide bombing in the southern Israeli city of Beersheva carried out by Palestinian militants from Hebron.
Construction had previously been focused around the north of the West Bank.
Israel insists the barrier is vital to stop suicide attacks while the Palestinians say its route, often jutting deep inside the occupied territory, shows its real intention is to swallow their land.
Farther north in Jericho, Israeli troops nabbed two Palestinian men, neither of them known for their affiliation to militant groups, security sources said.
Two wanted men were said to have escaped arrest. — Sapa-AFP