Israel's Fence Runs Into Trouble
Hundreds of Palestinians protested against Israel's West Bank separation barrier Thursday, with some stoning soldiers, after an Israeli court froze construction of a particularly contentious 15-mile stretch.
Soldiers fired rubber-coated steel pellets and tear gas at the crowd, and a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was injured, hospital officials said.
Israel's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that construction of a stretch of barrier northwest of Jerusalem could not resume until after the military responds to allegations that the route creates unnecessary hardship for Palestinians.
The army was given a week to respond, but the freeze is expected to remain in effect until the court reconvenes. No date has been set for the next hearing, court officials said.
Israel wants to complete the contentious barrier by the end of next year, hoping it will keep suicide bombers out of the country, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger.
The order affects an area around eight Palestinian villages northwest of Jerusalem near the invisible line separating Israel from the West Bank.
Opponents say the planned route of the barrier will severely disrupt the lives of 30,000 Palestinians by virtually imprisoning them in their villages and cutting them off from Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Israel says it needs the barrier of razor wire, concrete walls and trenches to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from entering its towns and cities.
Meanwhile, a 27-year-old Palestinian man in Gaza died of shrapnel wounds suffered in an Israeli missile strike Wednesday, Palestinian medical workers said, and Israel has agreed to compensate a Jerusalem Arab teenager who was paralyzed from the neck down after being hit by a rubber-coated bullet during Palestinian rioting on the Temple Mount 3½ years ago.
The Jerusalem Post reports Mohammed Juda will be paid 2.5 million shekels ($556,000) for the injury he suffered in October 2000 when he was 16.
Adli Abu Taha was the fifth Palestinian fatality from a pair of helicopter strikes in the Rafah refugee camp. The medical workers said Abu Taha was a civilian bystander.
Israel launched a new offensive into the Gaza Strip this week after suicide bombings Sunday that killed 10 Israelis in the Ashdod seaport. Security officials have also said they want to strike hard at militants ahead of a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said if peace talks remain stalled, he might order a pullout from Gaza and impose a boundary in the West Bank. Violence in Gaza has been increasing, with both sides intent on portraying a pullout as a victory.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said Thursday that Israel must withdraw quickly and peacefully.
"We don't want to see the withdrawal as talk, and on the ground they are destroying Gaza and killing the people in Gaza," he said.
The Supreme Court order over the separation barrier followed a protest in the area last month in which Israeli troops killed two Palestinian protesters. About 30 residents of the nearby Israeli town of Mevasseret Zion joined the challenge.
Mohammed Dahla, a lawyer for the barrier opponents, submitted a report by former Israeli military officials claiming the planned route goes far beyond security considerations and says a less intrusive route would be equally effective.
Defense Ministry and government officials did not immediately comment.
"I think it's a victory," Dahla said. "I think the Supreme Court in a way has started not to believe the story that is being told by the army. ... The wall is not only about security."
The barrier faces a series of legal challenges in the Supreme Court and the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Israel's Shin Bet security agency reported it had foiled a plot to hijack city buses and force them to drive to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Two of the six men in the terrorist "cell" work for the Palestinian Authority, said Shin Bet.