December 31, 2001	Monday	Shawwal 15, 1422

TEL AVIV, Dec 30: Israeli troops killed three Palestinians on Sunday near the Jewish settlement of Elei Sinai in the northern Gaza Strip, the army and settlers said.

The army said in a statement its forces killed “three armed Palestinian terrorists” after they opened fire, hitting a military vehicle.

A settlement official said the gunmen were intercepted as they crossed from the Palestinian-ruled area of the northern Gaza Strip into an Israeli-controlled zone by the road connecting Elei Sinai and Nitsanit, two Jewish settlements.

“They were spotted by the army...after they had come within 200 metres of the road,” Avi Farhan, a founding member of the Elei Sinai settlement, told Reuters.

Palestinian security sources said Israeli forces at the settlement had fired four shells and machineguns towards a nearby Palestinian village. They said ambulances had rushed to the scene, but they had no word on casualties.

The sources said Israeli troops later encircled the encampment and conducted searches. There were no reports of arrests.

The latest violence came on the same day the army released figures showing that attacks on Israelis had declined in the two weeks since Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called for them to stop.

Palestinian gunmen infiltrated Elei Sinai on December 2, killing one Israeli and wounding several others. Islamic militants killed two Israelis during an attack on the settlement in early October, triggering retaliation in which at least six Palestinians died.

CRAZY JOURNEY: It was the first time Arieh Doobov had done anything like this. The 32-year-old and some 300 other Israeli peace activists had come together under overcast skies on Saturday to travel to a small Palestinian village in the West Bank.

Their first mission was going to be to hand out food. But what they really wanted, they said, was to “do something” about the apathy which has frozen the country’s left-wing since the Palestinian uprising erupted 15 months ago.

“We dehumanize the Palestinians and they also dehumanize us. We have to do something to prevent the worst from happening,” said Doobov who joined a convoy of 24 cars which escorted a supply truck from the quiet streets of Jerusalem to Beit Ummar, near Hebron.

The convoy was organized by the Coexistence movement, an Arab and Israeli group formed last year to create understanding amid the violence which has claimed more than 1,100 lives and left the established peace accords in tatters.

The volunteers on the convoy were from all walks of life and did not share the same ideas on how to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians. But they all said some sort of concrete action needed to be taken.

Another one of the volunteers, 42-year-old Oudi Hrushovski, said it was important that Israelis “meet the other side.”

“We have to go beyond the myths which are paralyzing us, one of which says all Arabs think about nothing but killing Israelis,” he said.

But Hrushovski admitted it was not all that simple. There was “fear,” he admitted from behind the wheel of his blue car which led the convoy on the road near Hebron, which has been under an Israeli army blockade for months.

“You can’t forget that there have been innocent people killed by the Palestinians in the territories, The first mission is the most difficult, after that your perception of the reality changes,” he said.

When the convoy finally pulled up in Beit Ummar the volunteers started handing out the basic supplies such as packages of flour and cooking oil.

Many of the villagers seemed to appreciate the gesture. “This is a good thing, they see how we live,” said one of them, 27-year-old Yossef Abdallah.

Others, however, were more reserved in their praise. “The Israelis do this for themselves, not for us,” said a nearby businessman, Mohammed Slebi, 40.

He turned and pointed at a group of women forced to walk the road from Hebron because of the blockade. “In an hour, they’ll be gone,” he said of the Israeli activists, “and the situation here will be the same.”

Other Palestinians muttered about a “drop in the sea.”

It took the Coexistence movement a month to convince the village officials in Beit Ummar the mission was not about charity, but “solidarity.”

Azmi Bder, a 37-year-old Israeli Arab led the discussions. “It was very hard,” he said. “At the start, they said ‘You kill us, and now, you want to bring us food!’,” he said.

The neighbouring refugee camp of Al-Arub refused to receive the Israelis.

Despite all this, however, the Israelis and Palestinians started having conversations and some exchanged telephone numbers, which organizers said was in itself a minor victory.

“Three hundred Israelis in a Palestinian village in the middle of the intifada, there’s something crazy about that,” said Karen Akoka, 28, one of the organizers of the convoy, with a big smile.

“But what’s even crazier is the fact that it’s so problematic to bring us together,” she said.—Reuters\AFP