ISRAEL - Seals off West Bank

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BBC - Saturday, 2 June, 2001, 09:51 GMT 10:51 UK

Israel seals off West Bank

Israeli authorities have ordered a full and complete closure of the West Bank, following Friday's suicide bomb attack outside a Tel Aviv nightclub in which 17 young Israelis were killed.

The army said no Palestinians would be allowed to leave or enter the territory.

The order came as the Israeli security cabinet held an emergency session to discuss its response to the bombing, the most deadly in Israel for five years.

The Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, is now under increasing pressure, both within the cabinet and from the public, to abandon Israel's limited unilateral ceasefire.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing, but Israel is demanding that the authority should declare an immediate ceasefire.

More than 90 Israelis are being treated for wounds inflicted when nails from the bomb tore through a crowd queuing for a disco.

The attack happened late in the evening outside a club, crowded with young people going out for the weekend.

There has been strong international condemnation of the attack.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, said he was horrified, and President Bush called for an immediate ceasefire.

Russia blamed the bombing on extremists, with officials speaking of an inhumane criminal attack.

The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, said he was deeply shocked at what he denounced as a cowardly act. His foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, who was visiting Israel at the time, went to place flowers at the scene.

The French president, Jacques Chirac, said he was horrified and appealed for an immediate end to all violence.

Israeli crowds at the scene of the attack have openly demanded war on the Palestinians.

"Our response will come at a time and place that we will decide," said his spokesman, Raanan Gissin.

"The finger is pointing only in one direction and that is the chairman of the Palestinian Authority [Yasser Arafat] and the Palestinian leaders ... in their responses to our call for a ceasefire," he said.

Self-restraint

Mr Arafat later issued a statement condemning the bombing.

"The president condemns such attacks especially against civilians and calls on all sides to show self-restraint," his spokesman said.

A Palestinian official said this was the first time since the uprising began that Mr Arafat had called for restraint from his own side.

The statement added a call for new talks with Israel.

"We also call for an end to the military escalation and siege and all forms of violence and a return to the negotiations in order to achieve a just and comprehensive peace," the statement said.

Packed

Witnesses said people were queuing up to enter the Pascha club, popular with young emigre Russians, when a suicide bomber made his way to the door and detonated himself.

The bomb sprayed nails and bullets into the surrounding crowd.

"The terrorist exploded outside the entrance to the disco when there were people around him," said David Klausner, deputy head of the Tel Aviv police.

There were scenes of havoc after the blast occurred with crowds fleeing and panicked drivers racing away at high speed.

Injured victims lay groaning on the ground and pools of blood covered the pavement.

Thirty ambulances raced to the scene of the blast and helicopters hovered overhead, transferring the injured to hospitals in the Tel Aviv area.

Retaliation

Both Islamic Jihad and the Hamas have carried out bomb attacks against Israeli targets in recent months.

Hamas said it had 10 suicide bombers at the ready and so far has claimed responsibility for eight bombings since September.

However, neither group has claimed responsibility for this latest attack - Islamic Jihad denied initial press reports that it was their work.

Israeli officials are now saying that Yasser Arafat must order an immediate ceasefire.

A BBC correspondent in Jerusalem says it may take nothing less to avert massive Israeli retaliation.

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001

Answers

Mr Arafat later issued a statement condemning the bombing. "The president condemns such attacks especially against civilians..."

I don't believe there are any "civilians" in this struggle.

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001


Jerusalem Post

(11:30 Saturday) Palestinians celebrating Tel Aviv bombing By Arieh O'Sullivan

Upon hearing of the Tel Aviv suicide bombing, scores of Palestinians reportedly took the streets of the West Bank town of Ramallah in celebration. Some armed men fired wildly into the air.

Meanwhile, Palestinian leaders have warned of an expected Israeli retaliation to the bombing, which killed 17 Israelis, mostly young women.

According to reports, Palestinian security forces have evacuated headquarters and other buildings they suspect Israel may target.

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001


Foreigners Leave Gaza Strip

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Dozens of foreigners living and working in the Gaza Strip left Saturday amid fears of an Israeli military retaliation for a suicide bombing that killed the bomber and 18 young people at a Tel Aviv disco.

''They were our only hope that the response wouldn't be so terrible,'' said a Palestinian employee of a foreign consulate who requested anonymity.

The foreigners packed lightly, expecting to return within a few days, after being contacted by their consulates and embassies in Israel, the employee said. He said he knew of at least 20 foreigners who left Gaza on Saturday.

Eighteen young people were killed late Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up near dozens of people waiting in line to enter a Tel Aviv beachfront nightclub. Ninety Israelis were wounded in the attack, including 14 who were in serious or critical condition.

After previous bomb attacks, Israel has responded by shelling Palestinian security installations, but not civilian offices. But in the West Bank and Gaza Saturday, the Palestinian Authority ordered its employees to leave their offices.

The U.S. embassy said recent events, including the brief detention of an American journalist by militants several days ago, heightened its concern for the safety of U.S. citizens in Gaza.

''Americans should not travel to Gaza at the present time and those who live there should depart to a safer location when they can do so,'' the embassy said in a travel warning issued to American citizens Saturday.

A convoy of cars carrying foreign staffers of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency left the agency's compound in Gaza Saturday afternoon. The cars were loaded with luggage.

U.N. officials would not say whether the United Nations had ordered its foreign staffers to leave the Gaza Strip.

Other foreigners took measures to prevent their homes and offices from becoming Israeli military targets, flying their national flags from official residences and offices.

A large Omani flag flew from the top of its ambassador's home Saturday, while Egyptian flags were hoisted on the front gate and the roof of the residence of the Egyptian representative to the Palestinian Authority, which is located near Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in Gaza.

Four Australian flags were erected over a tourist resort north of Gaza City operated by Abdel Karim Sabawi, a Palestinian-Austrialian.

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001


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