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TEL AVIV, Feb 27: Israeli soldiers killed three armed Palestinians entering Israel’s Negev desert from Egypt on Wednesday in an incident that overshadowed hopes for peace fuelled by a Saudi initiative to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The killings came as Saudi Arabia’s crown prince told EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana he would “work to present” his Middle East peace overture at the upcoming Arab summit with the hopes of it becoming a joint peace plan.
Two other people, an Israeli and a Palestinian, were killed in separate incidents earlier in the day, shortly after an overnight security meeting in which officials from both sides tried to tackle the 17-month crisis.
The three Palestinians, who had sneaked across the border some 80 kilometres southeast of the Gaza Strip, opened fire on an army patrol that encountered them as they marched across the Negev desert, Israeli sources said.
The men were killed in a firefight in the Mount Ha Arif region, 10 kilometres inside Israel, the security sources said. One of them was found to have explosives strapped to his body.
Two Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded.
Earlier, a 34-year-old Israeli, Gad Rejwan, was shot dead by one of his Palestinian employees at a factory in an industrial zone of occupied Al Quds, close to the outskirts of Ramallah, in the West Bank, Israeli radio said.
The Popular Army Front-Return Brigades, a splinter group of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the killing.
And Palestinian Imad al-Mograbi, 25, was killed in a shootout between armed Palestinian groups and Israeli troops at the Balata refugee camp near Nablus in the northern West Bank, Palestinian security sources said.
Later in the day, Israeli teenager Rachel Teller died in hospital from injuries sustained when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself apart in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Karnei Shomron on Feb 16, medical sources said.
Two other Israeli teenagers were killed in the same attack.
UNDERCOVER ARMY UNIT: The Israeli army has decided to create a special unit of soldiers disguised as Palestinians that will operate in the Gaza Strip, the Haaretz daily said on Tuesday.
The decision was announced a few weeks ago by the army chief of staff, General Shaoul Mofaz, during a meeting of army commanders, the paper said.
Two special army units — “Duvdevan” and “Egoz” — already operate in the West Bank.
Of battalion strength, they were created in the utomost secrecy at the end of the first Palestinian uprising, which ran from 1987 to 1993.
Their members, charged with capturing dead or alive Palestinians sought for “terrorist activity,” disguise themselves as Arabs and work in direct contact with Israel’s internal security service, Shin Beth.
One unit known as “Samson” had operated before in the Gaza Strip, but was dismantled in 1994, following the Oslo peace accords of the previous year.
ARAB LEAGUE: Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa has called on Israel to show good faith toward a Saudi initiative for Middle East peace.
Speaking at a press conference with visiting Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, he reaffirmed the league’s support for the plan, and said it comes at “an important time”.—AFP
