herald-sun

ood for blood on Route 60

Israelis fire on Palestinian bus in reprisal for settler's murder

Special report: Israel and the Middle East

Suzanne Goldenberg in al-Khader, West Bank Tuesday February 13, 2001 The Guardian

Israeli soldiers shot through the rear window of a Palestinian bus yesterday morning, killing a labourer in what appeared to be a random act of violence.

Ziad Abu Swayyeh, 20, was shot through the back when Israeli troops fired on the bus he was travelling in. They were apparently trying to avenge the killing of a Jewish settler by Palestinian snipers on the same road, barely 10 hours earlier.

The twin killings along Route 60, the road that cuts south from Jerusalem through the stony hills of the West Bank to the Jewish settlement blocks, looked certain to feed the renewed violence triggered by last week's election of the hardline Ariel Sharon as Israel's prime minister. With the toll in the four-month uprising approaching 400 dead, mainly Palestinians, both sides yesterday seemed determined to intensify the violence.

As night fell, Israeli troops fired tank shells and machine-guns at the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. At least 30 people suffered bullet injuries, or were hit by shrapnel in a 90-minute firefight between Palestinian gunmen and troops guarding the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif, Palestinian human rights workers said.

The day of blood and retribution began at 6.30am when the driver of Abu Swayyeh's bus, Ahmed Zaoul, was easing off the paved road and around a huge mound of earth and concrete blocks piled up by Israeli army bulldozers at the entrance to Route 60 from al-Khader. He was turned back by Israeli soldiers.

As the bus, carrying 16 passengers, returned to al-Khader, shots shattered its rear window, killing Abu Swayyeh, who was standing beside the driver, and hitting another man in the head. "He rode my bus every day," Mr Zaoul said of the dead man. "This must have been a message from Sharon to the Palestinians. One Israeli was killed and so this morning they have taken their revenge."

A few hours later, a column of Palestinian women with groceries and small children tried to cross the barricade on foot, but scattered when a soldier pointed his gun at them.

Thousands of mourners followed Abu Swayyeh's body in a traditional martyr's burial yesterday. But he was a simple labourer, not a member of a Fatah militia, and so when his family returned to their village of Artas, they sat alone, waiting to receive condolences from the Palestinian Authority that never arrived.

At about the same time, and a few miles to the south, mourners were gathering at Rosh Tsurim, part of the large Gush Etzion settlement, for the funeral for Tsahi Sasson.

An electrical engineer, 35, Sasson was shot dead as he passed the Jewish settlement of Gilo on his way home from his job in Jerusalem on Sunday night.

He was a relative newcomer to the settlement, renting a home with his wife and two sons two years ago. "He was looking for a place that would be good for the children, where they could feel more free," said Sharon Green, the settlement secretary.

She looked down in the valley to the Jewish settlement of Beitar, Abu Swayyeh's destination yesterday. He had been working there for six months as a builder, earning 100 shekels a day (about £16.50).

There will be more acts of retribution, with Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement yesterday claiming Sasson's killing and renewing threats to step up attacks on Jewish settlements.

"The Sharon era will not be as stable and secure as the criminal promised," a Fatah leaflet said. "Our goal is to bring down Sharon and all his settlements."

In the gunfights that raged overnight across the West Bank, Palestinian snipers fired on Gilo, south of Jerusalem, for the first time since December 6, when church leaders and Mr Arafat got them to stop.

Officially, there have been no orders to resume hostilities against Gilo, said Kamal Hmeid, Fatah commander of the Bethlehem district who helped to broker the ceasefire. "It is still forbidden, but after Sharon's election there is reaction from people and we cannot stop them," he said.

Israel was also in no mood to back down yesterday. The outgoing prime minister, Ehud Barak, told army commanders to "do what needs to be done" to protect Jewish civilians. Though Mr Sharon has yet to take charge, a senior member of his Likud party said the new government would use even greater force against Arab gunmen. "They should know that we have means that we still have not used," Moshe Arens told Israel radio.

Last night Israelis and Palestinians were bracing for more bloodshed along Route 60. An Israeli armoured personnel carrier trained its machine-gun on al-Khader, and troops fanned along the electrified gates of Jewish settlements.

Across the fields and barren vinyards, Palestinians filed home from work - on foot as the Israeli army bans their travel by private cars. Jewish settlers lined up outside their enclaves to stone passing Palestinian taxis and buses.

• Israel's attorney general has asked the supreme court to reject outright a petition that is seeking a ban on state-sanctioned assassinations of Palestinian leaders.

-- Anonymous, March 03, 2001