Israeli Soldiers Gun Down 7 Palestinians

GAZA CITY, 31 May 2006 — Israeli soldiers gunned down seven Palestinians in a number of raids in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip early yesterday, witnesses and security sources said.

In the Gaza Strip, four Palestinians were killed, among them three members of the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, and nine others were wounded, including two journalists.

They were killed by an undercover Israeli unit members who entered deep into the Gaza Strip and engaged the Palestinians in a gunbattle.

Medical sources identified the four killed as Mohammad Mattar, Yousef Abo Meza, Abd Rahaman Shanb and Sabri Abu Goleg.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz vowed later in the day that the Israeli military operations against Qassam launch sites in the Gaza Strip would be continued by air, sea and land in order to prevent further rocket fire at Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Israeli incursions and described them as “unjustified escalation” that will lead the region into further deterioration and instability. It was the first time since the Israeli withdrawal form the Gaza Strip last September that the Israeli under cover unit entered deep in the Gaza Strip. Three Palestinians were also killed in separate pre-dawn raids cross the West Bank yesterday.

Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinian government employees rallied outside the Cabinet building in the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday. Since the Hamas-led government took office last March about 160,000 employees have not yet received their salaries due to sanctions against the government.

However, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh pledged yesterday to pay salaries within days to thousands of government employees. Haniyeh, in comments to his Hamas-led government, did not disclose the source of the funds. Palestinian banks have so far refused to transfer money to the authority, fearing US sanctions.

“I would like to announce that the Ministry of Finance will begin to pay a full month’s wages to those earning a monthly salary of up to 1,500 shekels ($332). The number of those employees is 40,000,” Haniyeh said.

He also promised to pay each of the other 125,000 government workers, who earn higher salaries, an advance of 1,500 shekels. The pledged payments could total nearly $55 million, a sum the government could partially meet using internal tax revenues.

Meanwhile, a group of Hamas members of the Palestinian Parliament and a minister in the Islamists’ Cabinet rejected yesterday an order by Israeli authorities to resign or be expelled from occupied East Jerusalem.

Three MPs elected in January’s elections as well as Khaled Abu Arafeh, the Jerusalem affairs minister in the Hamas government, were summoned by police late Monday and handed orders to step down from their posts.

If they fail to do so within a month, they will lose their status as permanent residents of the holy city. Israel reluctantly agreed to allow voting in East Jerusalem in January’s parliamentary elections under international pressure but refused to allow campaigning by Hamas.

However it first threatened to revoke the MPs’ status last month following a bomb attack in Tel Aviv that, while carried out by the smaller Islamic Jihad movement, was not condemned by Hamas. Mohammed Totah, one of the three MPs, dismissed the Israeli move as without any legal foundation.

“We will never resign,” Totah said. “This is an illegal decision. They can’t take away our identity cards just because we’re members of the Legislative Council (parliament).” Abu Arafeh was equally defiant, rejecting what he described as a “threat to revoke our residency and remove us from our land, people, homes and families.”

Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News

— With input from agencies