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Israel threatens Syria over militants
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-28 01:19
Israel accused Syria on Monday of "directing terrorism" and warned it could
face pre-emptive strikes against militants on its territory, but stopped short
of saying it killed a Hamas leader in Damascus.
Syria had accused Israel of terrorism following the Palestinian militant's
death in a car bombing on Sunday, three weeks after Hamas killed 16 Israelis in
bombings Israel blamed on Hamas exiles in Damascus.
Palestinian boys
hurl stones at an Israeli army vehicle during clashes in the Balata
refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus September 27, 2004.
[Reuters] |
In the latest violence, an Israeli
helicopter missile attack killed a Palestinian militant traveling with other
members of the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella militant group, in a
car in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, medics said.
Earlier, Israeli troops shot dead two militants trying to plant a bomb near
Gaza's border fence, Palestinian security sources said.
In the West Bank, Israeli police arrested a Jewish settler for the shooting
death of a Palestinian taxi driver, and in the city of Nablus, soldiers killed
two Palestinians during what residents said were confrontations with
stone-throwers. Israeli military sources said the troops shot two armed men.
Taking aim at Syria, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim said the
Jewish state's northern neighbor was "a central junction in regional terrorism"
and President Bashar al-Assad "works there as the traffic officer."
"Syria is responsible for directing this terrorism against us and therefore
it cannot be immune to our operations aimed at preventing terror," Boim said on
Israel Radio.
Asked whether Israel was behind the killing of Izz el-Deen al-Sheikh Khalil,
42, who Palestinian sources said headed Hamas's military wing outside the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, Boim said: "I didn't say that. We don't confirm or deny
this."
Channel Two television quoted unnamed security sources as saying Israeli
agents had planted the bomb which tore apart Khalil when he turned the ignition
of his car.
Syria's state news agency quoted an official source on Sunday as saying:
"This terrorist act represents a grave development for which Israel shoulders
responsibility as it stresses its intent to shake (regional) security and
stability."
HAMAS SAYS WILL HIT BACK
Hamas threatened to retaliate in an accelerating cycle of violence that could
complicate Israel's planned evacuation of settlers and soldiers from occupied
Gaza next year.
Militants have cranked up ambush attacks in the past few weeks, keen to cast
any Israeli pullout as fleeing under fire, and citing Israel's intent to hold on
to larger settlements in the West Bank as a trade-off for jettisoning the Gaza
Strip.
Hamas, an Islamist movement bent on destroying Israel, has killed hundreds of
Israelis in suicide bombings in a four-year-old uprising in which more than
2,500 Palestinians have also died.
Israel says Syria has permitted exiled Palestinian militant leaders to
orchestrate attacks from bases in Damascus. Syria says Hamas and other
Palestinian groups have only "information offices" in the country.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, a Fatah moderate, on Monday condemned
the "assassination of the martyr Khalil" and called it an Israeli attempt to
"export the crisis."
Israel had warned it would renew an assassination campaign against Hamas
leaders wherever they were after bus bombings on Aug. 31 that killed 16 people
in the city of Beersheba.
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