Israel threatens new raids after martyring top Hamas official

By: Ahmad Hammadi

WEST BANK: Following the martyrdom of a top Hamas official in the West Bank on Sunday, Israeli government threatened to continue tracking Palestinians fighting for their independence if the Palestinian Authority does not crack down on them.

Israeli soldiers martyred the group commander in the West Bank Abdullah Kawasmeh in the West Bank city of Hebron early Sunday ahead of an international meeting to try to rescue a battered peace plan.

Palestinians called the martyrdom an “assassination”, but Israeli security sources said troops attempted to arrest Kawasmeh.

The Palestinian Authority has long demanded Israel end its track-and-kill operations, which block attempts to achieve a truce.

Hamas leaders vowed revenge for the Kawasmeh martyrdom, which occurred at such a sensitive time when Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas in hopes of launching a US-sponsored peace plan was negotiating with Hamas and others to convince them to stop their attacks on Israel.

END

The Intifada must not be compromised

By: YA'HADI

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Ayatullah Sayyid Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah said the assassination attempt of Rantisi, one of Hamas's prominent leaders, is not the first time the enemy tries to assassinate members of the Palestinian political leadership to find a way out of the impasse it has been drawn into by the Intifada, having failed in forcing the Palestinian people to yield by means of killing civilians and destroying their infrastructure.

We believe that this attempt is an execution of certain political and security-related demands that were agreed upon in the Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba summits.

To execute the Road Map that encompasses about 80 per cent of the Israeli strategy, the plan that was set out is based on destroying the Intifada and disarming its fighters, thus ending any Palestinian resistance and depriving the Palestinian people of any source of strength.

Palestine is still the main rallying cry for all Islamic and Arab peoples in their struggle for freedom and dignity whether in the preset or in the future.

END