Deaths in Gaza Strip Top 100 As Israel Counters Rocket Fire
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, March 3, 2008
RAMALLAH, West Bank, March 2 -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday suspended peace talks with Israel following a spasm of violence in the Gaza Strip that has left more than 100 Palestinians dead since Wednesday as Hamas has continued its campaign of rocket strikes.
Under heavy domestic pressure and with protests across the West Bank, Abbas said the talks could not proceed during an Israeli offensive that has enraged Palestinians. He did not close the door on negotiations, having said frequently that he hopes the U.S.-backed talks will result in a comprehensive agreement by year's end. But he said resumption of the talks hinged on an end to Israel's "criminal war on the Palestinian people."
Israel gave no indication Sunday that it planned to halt its operations, even with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on her way to the region this week and with international condemnation pouring in.
"With all due respect, nothing will prevent us from continuing operations to protect our citizens," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his cabinet.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggested that Israeli operations would intensify, saying, "We will continue the activity with all our strength. And we need to prepare for escalation, because the big ground operation is real and tangible."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel called Abbas's decision to suspend the talks "a mistake" and said the Palestinians had agreed at the Annapolis peace conference late last year "to continue the discussions at the same time that we continue our war on terrorism."
"We hope they will reconsider and renew the negotiations shortly," Mekel said.
The attacks by Israeli ground troops, helicopters and tanks have been aimed at stopping Hamas from launching rockets into southern Israel. But the rocket strikes have continued -- 33 were recorded Sunday -- and so have Palestinian deaths.
The violence Sunday was considerably less intense than on Saturday, when 60 Palestinians were killed -- about half of them civilians. At least seven Palestinians were killed Sunday as Israel continued its raids in northern Gaza.
Four Israeli soldiers were slightly injured Sunday, bringing the five-day military casualty total to two killed and 11 wounded. During the same period, 240 rocket and mortar strikes have resulted in the death of one Israeli civilian and injuries to more than a dozen, the military said.
The streets of normally bustling Gaza City were largely empty and children throughout the strip stayed home Sunday, a school day here.
At hospitals, doctors scrambled to treat hundreds of wounded patients amid a shortage of beds and medicine. Gaza has suffered for months under a strict Israeli-imposed economic embargo, and residents said the latest violence further strained infrastructure that is already near the breaking point. Egypt on Sunday opened its border with Gaza to dozens of injured Palestinians, but many were too badly wounded to make the journey.
Nine-year-old Yehye Dardona was one of those being cared for in Gaza, days after he became the only survivor among a group of five friends who were struck by an Israeli missile as they played soccer.
"They are giving me medicine, but it is not enough," said Yehye, whose face, legs and feet were wrapped in bandages. "I am in pain."
Images of dead and wounded children have been broadcast continually on Arab-language television stations, and the anger was palpable Sunday in the West Bank, where thousands protested in solidarity with their fellow Palestinians in Gaza.
The Palestinian territories have been deeply divided since June, with the radical Islamic movement Hamas taking over in Gaza and the secular, Fatah-led Palestinian Authority remaining in the West Bank. Since then, Israel has pressed Abbas to stop the rocket fire from Gaza, despite the fact that he has no control there. In the West Bank, he has struggled to persuade people to accept the peace talks, a task that appeared to grow even more challenging with the latest violence.
Hamas has called for the destruction of Israel, but Abbas has staked his presidency on negotiations leading to a Palestinian state side-by-side with a Jewish state.
A Palestinian official with knowledge of the negotiations said the Israeli offensive had put Abbas in a no-win situation. "You either lose the world or you lose your people," he said. "Israel wants us to say no to negotiations so they can say to the world, 'We were ready to make painful concessions, but the Palestinians didn't want to come to the table.' "
West Bank demonstrators on Sunday chanted anti-Israeli slogans and called for an end to negotiations that they said have gone nowhere, despite President Bush's predictions of an agreement by the end of the year.
"President Bush had promised that by the end of 2008, there would be a Palestinian state. And in the year 2008, America and Israel are massacring the Palestinian people," said Fadi Abu Samra, 27, a fruit seller offering strawberries and bananas outside a refugee camp just north of Jerusalem.
Samra pointed to a spot 100 yards away, where Israeli troops crouching behind concrete barriers fired tear gas shells and stun grenades at Palestinian children, who countered with rocks. Thick black smoke from a burning tire billowed into the sky. "All of this is from the Americans," he said.
Clashes between Israeli soldiers and demonstrators turned deadly in the West Bank city of Hebron, where a Palestinian teenager was killed.
In Ramallah, home of the Palestinian Authority headquarters, hundreds of people took to the streets, some openly waving Hamas flags -- a rare sight in an area where the movement has been effectively banned.
"This is Palestinian blood that is being shed. It is not Hamas blood or Fatah blood," said Ibrahim Abu Adma, 26. "The children who are dying are not Fatah or Hamas."
Early Sunday, the U.N. Security Council urged both sides "to immediately cease all acts of violence." U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon accused Israel of using "excessive" force.
The president of the European Union, Slovenia, criticized "the recent disproportionate use of force" by the Israeli military against Palestinians in Gaza and described Israel's policy as "collective punishment." The statement also condemned the firing of rockets into Israel.
The United States called for both sides to stop fighting but acknowledged Israel's right to defend itself.
"We call for an end to violence and all acts of terrorism directed against innocent civilians," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement. "There is a clear distinction between terrorist rocket attacks that target civilians and action in self-defense."
Israel has said its operations are designed to protect the nation from Hamas, which Israeli officials say has lately been receiving higher quality weapons from Iran.
"We have to destroy the Iranian enclave," said Yuval Steinitz, a leader in the Likud Party who advocates a full-scale invasion of Gaza. "We have to level a heavy blow to the terrorist infrastructure."
Special correspondent Reyham Abdulkarim in Gaza City contributed to this report.
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