More Bloodshed Rocks Mideast
Israel launched air strikes on the bases of elite Palestinian forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Wednesday in response to the latest in a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings which killed two Israeli teenagers.
The net effect, CBS News Correspondent David Hawkins reports, may be disastrous. Although Israel said it took care to minimize the number of civilian casualties, Palestinian officials say the Israeli attack has killed all chances for peace.
Witnesses said helicopter gunships fired missiles on Gaza and the West Bank city of Ramallah, setting ablaze buildings and cars, knocking out electricity and killing at least two Palestinians in Ramallah and wounding dozens.
Palestinians denounced the strikes as "state terrorism."
"This is a dangerous escalation and it destroys the last chances of peace," said Palestinian Liberation Organization member Nabil Abu Rdainah. "We hold the Israeli government fully responsibly for this deterioration."
Israel said they were punishment for the wave of bomb attacks and vowed to hit militants whenever necessary.
"We shall decide upon the time, place and certainly the means by which we will strike at terrorists and those responsible for terrorism," Israeli army spokesman Ron Kitry said.
The army said it had hit the Ramallah headquarters of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Force-17 security force, which it says has been behind a number of bomb attacks during six months of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been under increasing pressure to strike hard at the Palestinians. He has repeatedly accused Force 17 of being involved in attacks against Israeli civilians, but he has been holding back while Arafat met with Arab leaders in Jordan.
Just hours after the Arab summit broke up, Sharon ordered the air strikes.
In Gaza, an arsenal, a training camp and other installations used by Force-17 were hit, as well as a Palestinian Authority armored vehicle, it said.
A Palestinian Red Crescent official said the two dead were a member of Force-17 and a Palestinian civilian. Several other people were wounded.
Arafat aides promptly denounced the air strikes. Ahmed Abdel Rahman, said: "This is an unprecedented aggression on the national (Palestinian) Authority which is without justification."
He said it showed the "true intentions" of the Sharon government, who convened a security cabinet shortly before the attacks started and had been under fierce pressure to retaliate for a spate of bomb attacks.
The Bush administration, implicitly criticizing Israel's bombardment of Yasser Arafat strongholds, said Wednesday force cannot resolve the bloody conflict with the Palestinians that has roiled the Middle East for six months.
 AP Friends gather to mourn Eliran Rosenberg, 16, who was killed by a bomb in the village of Sdeh Hemet. |
"The tragic cycle of incitement, provocation and violence has gone on far too long," the White House statement said. "The president calls upon both sides to exercise maximum restraint to calm the situation and set the foundation for a return to negotiations."
The administration urged Arafat's Palestinian Authority to "speak out publicly against violence and terrorism, arrest the perpetrators of terrorist acts and resume security cooperation."
At the same time, Israel should "exercise restraint while taking steps to restore normalcy for the lives of the Palestinian people by easing closures and removing checkpoints," the White House said.
Separately, the State Department said, "It is essential that this violence come to an end." Specifically, the administration demanded that Palestinian militants stop their suicide attacks against Israelis.
Israel is defending its right to protect its people, and 22 Arab leaders pledged at a two-day summit that ended Wednesday financial and moral support for the Palestinian uprising.
In a statement cleared with Secretary of State Colin Powell, spokesman Richard Boucher said, "We recognize Israel's need to provide for its security."
He said, however, "we do not believe there is a military solution to this conflict."
Before the latest violence, Arab leaders called at a summit in Jordan for an international force to protect Palestinians in revolt against Israeli occupation. They also demanded that Israeli "war criminals" be put on trial and approved a proposal to send $240 million in emergency aid to the Palestinian Authority over the next six months.
In a blow to the Palestinian cause, the United States used its veto Tuesday to kill a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have backed the sending of an unarmed international observer force to the West Bank and Gaza.
After Wednesday's suicide bombing, at Newe Yamin about 15 miles northeast of Tel Aviv, a telephone caller who said he was from the military wing of Hamas said the Islamic group had carried out the attack.
"There are still seven martyrs ready to strike and we have more," the caller said.
The caller also claimed responsibility on behalf of Hamas for a suicide bombing that killed the bomber and wounded at least 30 people in Jerusalem Tuesday, and for a bomb which police defused in the coastal city of Netanya Wednesday.
At least 356 Palestinians, 69 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since violence erupted in late September ater peace talks became deadlocked.