The homecoming of 400 newly released prisoners provided a breath of fresh air for Palestinians in the West Bank, but the violence showed no signs of abating. Khaled Amayreh reports With the US-backed roadmap reaching a virtual dead end -- despite half-hearted efforts by the Bush administration to keep it relevant -- the fighting between Israel and the Palestinians relentlessly continues. A marked escalation of violence occurred on 28 January when the Israeli occupation forces, using armoured personnel carriers and Apache helicopters, stormed the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in central Gaza, killing eight Palestinians and injuring at least 20. The victims were an eleven-year-old boy and three labourers taking cover inside their workplace, along with four activists affiliated with the Islamic Jihad group. The killings coincided with further house demolitions in Rafah at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip. Another 30 houses were demolished, adding yet more families to the already overwhelming list of impoverished and homeless Palestinians. Israel justified its actions in Rafah as retaliation for the suicide bombing on 14 January at the Erez border crossing, carried out by a Palestinian woman and mother of two children, in which four Israeli soldiers were killed. Hamas, which took joint responsibility for the bombing with Fatah, defended the operation, saying "our fighters attacked military not civilian targets." Continuing the tit-for-tat carnage, a former Palestinian policeman blew himself up aboard an Israeli bus on Jerusalem's Gaza Street on 29 January, killing 11 Israelis and injuring many more. Fatah and Hamas claimed joint responsibility for the bombing. The bomber, identified as Ali Ja'ara from the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem, left a note saying the bombing was in retaliation for the Israeli army "atrocity" in Rafah the previous day. The Israeli government pointed an accusing finger at Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. One Israeli minister opined that this was the opportunity to "dispose of Arafat once and for all". The Israeli government also strongly criticised UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan for linking the Jerusalem bombing with the Rafah killings. Annan had earlier condemned the "violence and bloodshed in the Middle East", without specifying the Jerusalem bombing. Hamas and Fatah, meanwhile, defended the bombing, arguing that "Israel must understand that Jewish blood is not more precious than our children's blood." The Palestinian Authority denounced "the killing and counter-killing of civilians", holding Israel responsible for the escalation. "When they [Israel] carry out daily atrocities against innocent Palestinian civilians, such attacks become inevitable," said PA official Saeb Erekat. "This is a vicious cycle of bloodletting that must be stopped," he added. On 1 February, the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (HRMG) published a report, showing that in the past month more Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli troops than Israeli civilians died at the hands of Palestinian fighters, as has been true since the outbreak of the Al- Aqsa Intifada in 2001. The report showed that from 31 December to 31 January, the Israeli army killed 33 Palestinians, including two children between the age of one and 14, seven teenagers, and 19 other Palestinians, mostly civilians. During the same period, Palestinian guerrillas and suicide bombers killed four Israeli soldiers, two Israeli settlers and 11 Israeli civilians. Six more Palestinians were killed by the IDF in Gaza and the West Bank on the first days of the Eid Al-Adha holiday. The killings are likely to trigger more violence and bloodshed. Meanwhile, Palestinians celebrated when Israel released some 400 Palestinian prisoners as part of the German-mediated prisoner swap agreement with Hizbullah. However, there are still some 7,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and detention camps. Many Palestinians hailed Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah for "pushing Israel's nose into the dust". Elderly Palestinian women cried shrieks of joy in praise of Nasrallah, hailing him as the "hero who liberated our sons and gave us hope". "May God Almighty give him a long life," said the mother of Ther Falah Imrish, a worker imprisoned for two and a half years for affiliation with the Islamic Jihad. "He was due to be released six months from now, but I am very happy. His father is dead, and he is our sole breadwinner. May God bless Sheikh Nasrallah." Nayfeh Zughayer, from Hebron, described the release of her son, 10-year-old Mohamed Abdul- Salam, as "our Eid present" alluding to the Eid Al- Adha holiday which began last Sunday. Many of the prisoners released in the latest swap are college students imprisoned for their affiliation with Islamic student groups. "I am a college student," said Abdul-Hamid Abu Jarur, from the town of Beit Ula, near Hebron. "I shouldn't have been arrested in the first place, let alone imprisoned. But, we live under a very oppressive state where the judge is the enemy." Palestinians view the prisoners as national heroes. "Let the Israelis and their friends call us and our sons terrorists. But, for us these are heroes, real heroes," said Hassan Saber Shalaldeh, of the town of Sair, south of Bethlehem, who came to the Tarqumya junction to welcome his son. "Only cowards don't resist foreign intruders." "We will not give in, we will either earn our freedom or die. There is nothing in between," Shalaldeh added. An elderly man listening to the conversation had a different view. "Listen, we don't dream of heroism, we want to have peace. We want to live in peace with the Israeli people. The problem is that they want to take our homeland away from us."
