March 15, 2002	Friday	Zilhaj 30, 1422

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TEL AVIV, March 14: A crack Israeli Merkava battle tank was destroyed for the second time in a month by Palestinians in an attack in Gaza Strip on Thursday. Three of its crew were killed, the Israeli army said in a statement.

Two other crew members of the tank which was guarding the road between Netzarim and the Karni crossing point between the eastern Gaza Strip and Israel were wounded in the bomb blast, the statement added.

The attack was claimed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and dealt a new blow to the army, following a similar incident exactly a month ago in the same area.

On Feb 14, a Palestinian operation knocked out a Merkava, the pride of the Israeli army, with a heavy explosive charge, for the first time since the Palestinian uprising began at the end of Sept 2000, also killing three of the crew.

The destruction of the tank came amid continuing bloodshed. Six Palestinians were killed in two separate incidents near the West Bank town of Tulkarm.

The killings threatened to inflame tensions just as US envoy Anthony Zinni arrived in Israel to pursue an end to more than 17 months of Middle East bloodshed.

An Israeli helicopter gunship fired at least three missiles at the car of Palestinian leader Mu’tasen Hammad as it drove by a poultry farm in Anabta village near Tulkarm. Hammad and a civilian bystander, a chicken farmer, were killed.

Hammad was a local leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is linked to President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction. Two of Hammad’s aides were wounded, one critically, and another bystander was wounded.

The Brigades group has taken responsibility for most of the Palestinian attacks on Israelis carried out in the past two months.

Later in the day, four Palestinians were killed when their car exploded in Bal’a village, also close to Tulkarm.

“A yellow taxi was driving in Bal’a when it exploded. We don’t know whether the car was booby-trapped by the Israelis or if they fired a missile at the car,” a Palestinian security source said.

He said at least two of the dead were members of Fatah.

“We hold the Israelis fully responsible,” Tulkarm Governor Izz el-Din al-Sharif said.

An hour after Hammad’s death, thousands of Palestinians took part in his funeral procession in Tulkarm.

A member of the group said: “The retaliation is coming, God willing.”

Israel has killed dozens of Palestinians in operations it says help prevent future attacks. Palestinians condemn them as assassinations that foment fresh violence in their uprising against Israeli occupation.

In January, Israel killed Raed al-Karmi, a senior member of the Brigades in Tulkarm. That set off a deadly cycle of revenge attacks and buried a three-week-old ceasefire effort.

UN RESOLUTION: Palestinian refugees in south Lebanon are pouring scorn on the UN’s Palestine resolution, which overlooks their right to return to lands their families left when Israel was created in 1948.

Many said the unprecedented UN Security Council resolution, sponsored by the United States and passed on Tuesday, was a sop to the Arabs to ease disquiet over possible US strikes on Iraq.

Criticism of Resolution 1397 was rampant in Rashidiyeh refugee camp, a stronghold of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Lebanon’s border with Israel.—Reuters / AFP