Gaza pullout bearing more fruit....

LINK

JERUSALEM, Aug. 28 -- A Palestinian suicide bomber detonated himself outside a public bus in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba during Sunday rush hour, wounding at least 10 people in the first such attack since Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials said the casualty toll would have been far higher if the driver hadn't identified the bomber as a potential attacker and quickly notified two security guards, who pursued the man as he walked through the city's main bus station. The bomber eventually detonated his explosives, seriously wounding the two guards and injuring at least eight other Israelis. More than two dozen others were treated at local hospitals for light injuries and hysteria.

 

This activity has been going on for years before the pullout from Gaza. Therefore, it is inaccurate to atrribute it to the Gaza pullout.

The Gaza pullout was supposed to STOP this, Ken. That's what we were told, right ?

 

Still waiting.....

 

ARTICLE

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said on Saturday Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank could bar the establishment of a viable Palestinian state and renew bloodshed.

Qurie spoke to Reuters in an interview a day after an Israeli official said the population of Jewish settlements in occupied land had grown by more than 9,000 this year to 246,000 despite Israel's removal of settlers from Gaza this month.

"The Palestinians are very worried about the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, particularly around Jerusalem ... this will destroy the possibility of a viable Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza," Qurie said.

Holding up a map of the West Bank, Qurie ran his fingers along coloured lines that highlight Israeli building plans to link Jerusalem to the West Bank settlement Maale Adumim, which Israel is finalising plans to expand.

"This will renew the cycle of violence," Qurie said.

Militant groups committed to Israel's destruction have celebrated the Gaza withdrawal as a victory of their strategy of suicide bombings and have vowed to renew attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem to end Israel's occupation of these areas.

"What is happening is very dangerous ... They are expanding the borders of Jerusalem to the Jordan Valley. Who will accept that? Who will accept swapping Gaza for Jerusalem or for the West Bank?" Qurie asked.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Israel will keep larger West Bank settlement blocs including Arab East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised internationally.

Israel views Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians seek to make the eastern sector the capital of a future state.

Qurie said Palestinians welcomed the unilateral Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip, but that Israel's evacuation of 25 settlements there and in the West Bank last week would not alone turn the overcrowded, poor coastal strip into a sovereign state.

"We refuse the establishment of a state only in Gaza. Gaza is part of the occupied areas. A viable Palestinian state to live in peace beside Israel is only a state set up on the 1967 borders" said Qurie, meaning all the West Bank and Gaza.

Qurie said the Palestinian Authority had fulfilled a pledge to prevent violence during the settler eviction from Gaza, and now hoped U.S. leaders would press Israel to renew talks on a "road map" to peace.

The "road map" calls for Israel to halt all settlement building in the lands occupied in the 1967 Middle East War. The World Court brands all settlements illegal. Israel disputes this.

Responding to Israel's insistence that it would not renew talks or discuss further withdrawals until the Palestinians disarm militants, Qurie asked: "Why doesn't Israel disarm its settlers who shoot and kill Palestinians?"

He was referring to the killings of three Palestinians by a Jewish settler in a West Bank shooting this month.

Turning to the issue of militants, Qurie said the Palestinians had recently demanded that militants not display weapons on the streets, and hoped ultimately to see no arms carried by anyone but Palestinian police.

"As far as we're concerned, we will organize the use of arms," Qurie said.

 

You have my prayers, down there. But with all due respect, this ain't no petty issue.

 

LINK

By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH


A 14-year-old Palestinian was arrested after he was caught carrying three pipe bombs through the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus Monday afternoon.

The teenager set off the alarm of the metal detector positioned at the crossing, alerting soldiers manning the position.

He was found to be carrying in a bag three pipe bombs that were to be activated by a friction type detonator. The bombs were packed with explosives, as well as shrapnel and glass balls.

Border police sappers blew up the bomb and the youth was handed over to the Shin Bet for questioning.

The Hawara checkpoint has become a notorious target over the past few months for terrorists trying to smuggle bombs and arms into Israel.
On June 19 of this year a Palestinian youth was apprehended at the checkpoint while attempting to smuggle five pipe bombs.

A month prior to that incident a 14-year-old Palestinian wearing a belt with two pipe bombs strapped to it was arrested, and in another incident at the same place, a 15-year-old Palestinian was arrested after he was discovered carrying two pipe bombs inside a black bag.