Palestinian resistance groups are focusing on Israeli military targets, reports Khalid Amayreh from Hebron Apparently indifferent to US Undersecretary of State William Burns' latest efforts to reduce the level of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, the Israeli army has, once again, invaded the northern West Bank town of Jenin. Thousands of Israeli troops, backed by tanks and attack helicopters, entered the town around dawn on Friday, 25 October, in a large-scale operation described as the most brutal since the destruction at the Jenin refugee camp back in April. As they entered the city, Israeli forces opened fire. One Palestinian teenager, Fuad Abu-Ghali, 15, was shot dead and six other civilians were wounded, three of them seriously. The invading troops took over several homes and multi- storey buildings, and conducted house-to-house searches for "wanted persons", on suspicion of involvement in "hostile activities". The Israelis rounded up more than 70 youths, most of them ordinary civilians and dynamited five homes and other structures belonging to the families of Palestinian activists. On 29 October, Israeli undercover units assassinated Asef Sawafta, an Islamist activist, in Jenin. The murder took place in front of his family. Earlier, on 27 October, three other Palestinians were assassinated by undercover Israeli troops, two in Nablus and one in Tulkarm. The Israeli army claimed its operation in Jenin and the killings in Nablus and Tulkarm were in retaliation for the 21 October car-bomb attack near Khadera in northern Israel a week earlier, in which 13 Israeli soldiers and settlers were killed. The attack was carried out by two Islamic Jihad bombers, Mohamed Hassanin and Ashraf Al-Asmar, both from Jenin. The radical Islamic group announced that the bombing was in retaliation for the wanton killing by the Israeli army of more than 65 Palestinian civilians in Rafah and Khan Younis in the past five weeks. The group defended the attack, arguing that it targeted soldiers, rather than civilians. The bomb-attack, near Khadera, seems to reflect a certain evolving trend among Palestinian resistance groups whereby only Israeli soldiers and settlers are targeted. The past few months have witnessed a marked reduction in Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians; however, a marked increase of Israeli targeting of Palestinian civilians. On 27 October, a Hamas guerrilla with explosives strapped to his waist attacked the settlement of Ariel near Nablus, which is mainly inhabited by Jewish settlers who openly advocate the physical extermination or collective deportation of the Palestinians in accordance with "halacha" or Jewish law. The young Palestinian had his eyes set on dozens of heavily-armed Israeli soldiers waiting at a gas station on the edge of the settlement. However, he was stopped a few metres short of the target, where he was shot. Before dying he reportedly succeeded in activating the bomb he was carrying, killing three soldiers, including two officers, and injuring 15 others, five seriously. An Israeli government spokesman, appearing on BBC TV, described the attack as "a despicable terrorist act", claiming that the bombing targeted "innocent people". The Palestinian Authority condemned the Ariel bombing. The Palestinian public, however, seems to be firmly in support of attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers on the grounds that people under occupation, facing persecution and repression, have a moral and legal right to resist and fight occupation troops. Israeli Defence Minister Benyamin Ben Eliezer, declared earlier this week that the security option has been exhausted in dealing with the Intifada. However, his remarks, which reflects thinking within the Labour Party, drew angry reactions from the rightist camp and the "hawkish" army leadership. The increasing divergence between Sharon and the Labour party, which found expression in Labour's threat to leave the government if funds earmarked for settlements were not allocated for social and educational programmes serving the poorer segments of society, has prompted Sharon to announce that he may appoint former Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz, as defence minister. The attack in Ariel is significant in light of the daily acts of rampage and harassment by Jewish settlers against defenceless Palestinian villagers, especially olive harvesters. Such attacks often occur with the tacit approval of the Israeli army, whose soldiers rarely intervene to protect Palestinians from settler pogroms. Indeed, the Israeli army declared last week that it didn't have the necessary manpower to provide protection for the Palestinians, demanding that Palestinian farmers avoid moving in areas contiguous to Jewish settlements.
