Palestinian sniper kills 10 Israelis

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Posted 8:52AM on Sunday, March 3, 2002

JERUSALEM - A Palestinian sniper opened fire on Israeli soldiers and civilian cars at an army checkpoint in the West Bank on Sunday, killing 10 people, the army and hospital officials said. Elsewhere, an Israeli and two Palestinians were reported killed in separate incidents and a third Palestinian died of wounds suffered earlier. The latest violence - which drew demands in Israel for the deposing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat - came just 12 hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem Saturday evening, killing nine Israelis, including several children. Israel responded with a series of attacks against Palestinian targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the Palestinians said at least two Palestinians, both policemen, were killed and a number of civilians hurt. F-16s circled overhead in Gaza and the West Bank, and Israeli gunboats moved close to the Gaza coast, Palestinians said. The Al Aqsa Brigades, a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for both Saturday's bombing in Jerusalem and Sunday's shooting in the West Bank near the Jewish settlement of Ofra. The militia - which said it would take revenge for Israel's assault last week on the West Bank refugee camps of Balata and Jenin, in which 23 Palestinians were killed over three days - circulated a leaflet saying Sunday's shooting was in response to Israeli army actions in the two camps. In the Balata camp, where a man died Sunday of wounds suffered in last week's clashes, a crowd of about 3,000 chanted, ``Revenge, revenge!'' Exchanges of gunfire also were reported around the Jenin camp. Israel blamed Arafat for the latest attacks, and Dan Naveh, a Cabinet minister, said they showed ``there is no alternative but to put an end to Arafat's rule.'' ``I think the best way to ensure the safety of Israeli citizens is that there will no longer be a Palestinian Authority headed by Arafat,'' he said. Palestinians, too, said the violence was spiraling out of control - but blamed Israel. ``The Palestinian leadership warns of the danger of the Israeli occupation and escalation of attacks ... on our cities, camps and facilities,'' said a statement carried by the official Wafa news agency. ``This Israeli aggression, which aims to push the entire region closer to an all-out escalation ... must be confronted and stopped." Israel's security Cabinet was meeting Sunday evening to consider new action, but even before the meeting had broken up, reprisals had begun. Sunday's mass shooting occurred at an Israeli army roadblock near the Palestinian village of Silwad and Ofra settlement. Paramedic Hezi Tsur told Israel radio seven soldiers and two civilians were killed, and the army also said nine died without being more specific. A Jerusalem hospital, Hadassah Ein Kerem, later reported one of the wounded, a civilian, had died. The army described it as an ambush by what was believed to be a single sniper. Motorist Eli Barashi said he was about 300 yards from the checkpoint at the time. ``I heard shooting and I saw the soldiers firing back ... as I stood there somebody was hit and fell and shouted for a medic,'' he told Israel radio. Army radio put the number of wounded at 10, and Yerocham Mandola, spokesman of the Magen David Adom ambulance service, said six people were hurt, four seriously. Elsewhere, gunmen fired on a group of soldiers early Sunday along a road on the Israeli side of the fence between the Gaza Strip and southern Israel. Army radio said one Israeli was killed and three others wounded, while the army said four soldiers were hurt. The military wing of the radical group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for that attack in a telephone call to The Associated Press in Gaza. ``The Islamic movement and all the Palestinian people will not stop terrorizing our enemy all over the occupied land ... We will avenge every drop of blood from our Palestinian martyrs,'' the caller said. The army swiftly responded, using tanks to knock down two Palestinian checkpoints on the Gaza side near the shooting site and searching houses in the nearby village of al-Qarara. Palestinians also reported two people were hurt when Israeli troops opened fire on a Palestinian security post near Khan Younis in central Gaza. In the West Bank, Palestinians said Israeli tanks shelled a Palestinian security intelligence office outside Salfit, south of Nablus. Intelligence official Abdullah Kmeil said 16 tank rounds were fired at the installation, and the Palestinians later said a Palestinian policeman was killed. The army confirmed it shelled what it called a training facility near Salfit. Israeli troops also aimed heavy machine-gun fire at a Palestinian security checkpoint near the West Bank town of Ramallah manned by Palestinian security forces. Palestinian hospital officials said at least 18 people were hurt. The army did not comment specifically on the attack but said in a statement that Palestinian checkpoints ``through which Palestinian terrorists pass to carry out attacks'' were targeted Sunday. Palestinians also reported a policeman killed in the Israeli rocketing of a police installation in the al-Amari refugee camp outside Ramallah. Clouds of smoke billowed into the air, and one man was helped into a car, his face covered with blood. Earlier Sunday, Israeli helicopters fired four missiles at Palestinian Authority headquarters and a small factory in Bethlehem. The Israeli military said that strike was in retaliation for Saturday evening's bombing in Jerusalem. The thunderous blast from the suicide bombing shook a downtown ultra-Orthodox neighborhood and sent flames leaping into the air from a car that caught fire. Blood splattered the stone wall in front of the Mahane Israel seminary, where up to 1,000 Jews meet every Saturday evening. Scraps of flesh and clothes were scattered on the streets. Jewish volunteers picked up the small pieces of human remains to ensure a proper Jewish burial. The neighborhood's ultra-Orthodox Jews, in blacks coats and hats, packed the street and looked on from the balconies of the old stone homes lining the road. Some chanted, ``No Arabs, no terror attacks.'' Besides the bomber, nine people were killed, including a 1-year-old child and several other children, police said.