Publicité
Ariel Sharon authorises militant crackdown
Par
Partager cet article
Ariel Sharon authorises militant crackdown
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he is giving Israel’s army free rein to battle militants in Gaza, and the Palestinian leadership called for a halt to attacks on Israelis. Israeli tank fire killed two Palestinians in Gaza, medics said on Sunday, as a rash of violence dented peace hopes despite the election last week of Palestinian moderate Mahmoud Abbas as president.
The Israeli assault on Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza came as Israel Radio reported Sharon had ordered troops “to act immediately with no political or military restrictions” to halt repeated rocket fire into southern Israel on Sunday.
“I won’t let this mad situation continue,” Sharon told the mayor of Sderot, whose residents have threatened to launch a commercial strike on Monday in protest at the rocket attacks. Sharon also told his cabinet the army had been “instructed to take any action needed without restriction to stop terror, and they will continue to do so... as long as the Palestinians do not lift a finger”.
Sharon told ministers that at his ranch in southern Israel he could hear rockets landing in nearby towns. He demanded Palestinian police deploy in northern Gaza to stop the salvoes. Israeli media said the army might consider resuming assassinations of top militant leaders and could set up “security zones” in Gaza to prevent mortar and rocket fire aimed at Israel or at Jewish settlements.
An Israeli tank shell hit a house in Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza after dark, killing a 27-year-old man and his mother and seriously wounding his father, Palestinian medics said. An Israeli military source said troops had fired twice in the area, once at Palestinians suspected of planting explosives and again at Palestinians who had been observing the troops and were suspected of plotting an attack.
Publicité
Publicité
Les plus récents
