By Saud Abu Ramadan, IANS
Gaza : Violence between Israel and the Palestinians had recently mounted amid preparations for the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to Israel and the region next week, where he is scheduled to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to push forward the peace talks between them.
However, on the eve of Bush’s visit to the region, the Israeli army killed on Wednesday and Thursday 12 Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and stormed the city of Nablus in the West Bank, that is under the full control of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel said the military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip aims at reining against militant groups that continue carrying out attacks against Israel, mainly launching homemade rockets from Gaza at Israel.
But Palestinian analysts believed that “the aims of the Israeli army escalation against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gazais not only to crackdown on militants, but to show that Israel is fighting what it terms as terrorism.”
“Israel wants to prepare the atmosphere for Bush visit by escalating violence in the West Bank and Gaza in order to convince him that the Palestinians keep attacks on Israel in spite of having ongoing peace talks,” said Hamdan Abu Ashour, an academic from Gaza.
The Ramallah-based al-Ayyam Daily quoted well-informed Palestinian sources as saying that President Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Abbas will hold a summit meeting in Jerusalem on Jan. 10.
While, Palestinian chief negotiator Ahmed Qurei told the daily on Thursday that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators had finished forming the committees that will negotiate final status issues, like Jerusalem, settlements, borders, refugees and water.
But, on Wednesday, the Israeli army killed seven Palestinian gunmen, four belong to Hamas armed wing, two belong to the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and one belongs to Fatah movement’s armed wing al-Aqsa Brigades.
On Thursday, several Israeli armored vehicles and tanks backed by jet fighters, rolled into the outskirts of Bani Suhayla village east of the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip.
Israeli tanks fired at least nine artillery shells at the village, as militants belong to several militant groups launched homemade anti-tank missiles and mortar shells at them.
Witnesses in the village said that a tank shell hit the house of an Islamic Jihad militant, killing him, his mother, his brother and his sister.
Mo’awyea Hassanein, chief of emergency in the Palestinian ministry of health said that Sami Hamdan Fayyad, 25, was killed, where his mother Karima Fayyad, his brother Ahmed and his sister Asma were all killed.
Sami’s wife and his 3-year-old daughter were seriously injured, said Hassanein, adding that 25 people were injured, including his father Hamdan Fayyad.
Earlier on Wednesday, an Islamic Hamas militant was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a group of militants that were confronting the Israeli army ground forces rolling into the area.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Abbas told reporters that the ongoing Israeli military escalation against the Palestinians, mainly in the Gaza Strip, “aims at showing President Bush that Israel fights Palestinian terrorism.”
He condemned the killing of 12 Palestinians within the past 24 hours, and also storming the city of Nablus and detaining 18 people. Four of those killed in the Gaza Strip are civilians and eight are militants.
Although the city of Nablus in northern West Bank has been under the full security control of Palestinian National Authority (PNA) for three months, the Israeli army forces stormed the city saying the aim is to detain wanted militants.
“Israeli and Palestinian leaders go to join international conference, agree to resume talks and come back to the region to implement what they agree upon,” said Gaza academic Abu A’shour.
He added “The talks begin, then Israel starts actions like expanding settlements and carry out military actions in the Palestinian territories. Such Israeli behavior blocks any progress in the talks and damage the positive atmosphere of the talks.”