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Roundup: Israel Encloses Palestinian Town After Attacks on Settlement
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff Shaul Mofaz announced Monday morning that his soldiers had encircled Beit Jala, a Palestinian village near the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
The reason for the decision, according to Mofaz, was that in the past few days, Beit Jala had been "the sources of gunmen attacks against Gilo," a Jewish neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Jerusalem.
Late Sunday night, Israeli media reported, Palestinian gunmen in Beit Jala and Bethlehem fired bullets against four streets of Gilo, which was annexed by Israel after the 1967 Mideast war.
Israel said that because of its preventative measures, the attack caused no injuries but only damaged 16 apartments. It was the fifth attack, and the biggest to date, against the Gilo settlement since the Israeli-Palestinian violence flared up.
In total, 28 buildings were damaged and two Israelis, including a border policeman, were seriously injured in Gilo.
In response, the IDF ordered its helicopter gunships to fire a missile against Beit Jala Sunday night, the first time the IDF fired a site near Jerusalem since the violence broke out more than three weeks ago. Israeli tanks, which had been deployed near Gilo, also fired a shell and machine gun bullets.
Although Israel claimed that it warned Beit Jala residents to leave their homes before the missile and shell attacks, Palestinian sources said at least 10 Palestinians were wounded in the attack against Beit Jala. It was not clear whether the wounded are gunmen or civilians.
A Palestinian spokesman told Israel Radio Monday morning that the Palestinian National Authority had no control over the gunmen who fired at Gilo. He said these gunmen were frustrated individual citizens who were venting their rage at the situation.
The shooting in Gilo stopped overnight but the atmosphere is still tense there, Israel Radio reported.
On Monday morning, Mofaz decided to enclose Beit Jala and prevent any possible Palestinian gunmen from entering the village. "This is a warning that we will not allow more shooting at Gilo," Mofaz said.
It was widely believed that the decision was made under great pressure from local Jewish residents, who complained about what they called Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's "restraint policy." Barak, who toured the neighborhood with his wife on Friday, stated then that he will do all he can to protect Israel's "vital interests."
Ehud Olmert, the right-wing Jerusalem mayor, said Monday morning that he thought the IDF reactions to the firing in Gilo should be "firmer."
Mofaz warned Monday that the Palestinians should not test Israel's reaction to the Gilo attacks further, because they will "feel the IDF's heavy hand."
"We will do this type of thing wherever there is a danger to Israeli citizens," he warned.
The Israeli officer claimed that until now the IDF and Jewish settlement residents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip had exercised a policy of not escalating violence, "otherwise, there would have been many more Palestinian casualties."
More than 120 Palestinians, many of them teenagers and children, have been killed and over 4,000 others wounded so far by fully-armed Israeli soldiers and police, who fired rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition at stone-throwing Palestinian protesters.
Mofaz also stated that in his sense, security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians was now "non-existent." He hoped that the security coordination, particularly the cooperation over the prevention of "terrorism," would be renewed.
Meanwhile, it was also reported that other Jewish settlements, such as the Psagot neighborhood near the Palestinian self-rule city of Ramallah, were also under Palestinian attacks overnight.
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