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Wednesday, November 1, 2000

Arafat exhorts activists

Israel says his words encourage violence

By Greg Myre
Associated Press

JERUSALEM - Stepping through the rubble of an Israeli missile attack, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Tuesday called for renewed resistance by young activists, "these children who throw the stones to defend Jerusalem, the Muslims and the holy places."
   In a clash that lasted through the day and into the night, four Palestinians, ages 17 to 23, were killed by Israeli fire at the Karni crossing point along the eastern Gaza Strip, hospital doctors said. Thirty-four days of fighting have left 147 people dead, most of them Palestinians.
   The Palestinians supplemented their stones and firebombs for the first time with machine-gun fire and anti-tank missiles, according to the army. At least 45 Palestinians were injured in three separate clashes in Gaza and two in the West Bank, doctors said.
   Tuesday's fighting came a day after Israel rained missiles on several command centers of Arafat's Fatah movement in one the most intense attacks since the fighting began.
   The Israeli raids, launched in response for the killing of two Israelis, were the latest escalation in the cycle of retaliatory violence, and left Palestinians in a defiant mood.
   "What happened here and elsewhere in the Palestinian territories will not shake one hair on the head of the Palestinian children," Arafat said as he examined the battered walls and broken concrete at a base for his Force 17 bodyguards at Khan Yunis in Gaza.
   Israel says Arafat's comments have encouraged youths to take part in the daily confrontations. However, many youngsters say they do so with relish, needing no such prompting, while others participate out of peer pressure.
   The Israelis have criticized Palestinian leaders, saying they cynically use the children - and the resulting casualties - in the ongoing public relations battle between the two sides.
   Referring to the helicopter attacks, Prime Minister Ehud Barak warned, "the long reach of the Israeli army could be much more painful."
   Speaking to visiting world Jewish leaders, Barak said he talked to Arafat briefly a week ago to explain Israel's position, "but to my dismay, the emergency situation continues."
  

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