July 12 12:29 AM SGT

Israeli police thwart Palestinian bomber in dramatic last-second arrest

JERUSALEM, July 11 (AFP) -

Israeli police made a dramatic arrest Wednesday of a Palestinian bomber just seconds away from detonating his explosives -- the first time Israel has caught a suspected suicide attacker before the act.

The stunning arrest came on a day when a Palestinian mother-of-two apparently trying to enter Israel to work was shot dead by Israeli soldiers, as a would-be ceasefire between the two sides remained far from reality on the ground.

Police in the northern city of Afula were alerted Wednesday morning when they spotted a suspicious-looking bag near a bank and a man holding a similar satchel who began to run once sighted.

They reached the 30-year-old Palestinian, whose name was not given, just before he was able to set off a detonator that would have exploded the device, which was packed with explosives, screws and nails.

Because the bomb was not built to be activated by remote, police said they believe the man was planning to blow himself up. They closed off the town to search for an accomplice who fled on foot.

The militant Palestinian group Hamas recently said it had at least 10 "martyrs" ready and waiting to carry out suicide attacks against the Jewish state.

Meanwhile 38-year-old Rasmieh el-Jabarin was shot dead trying to evade an Israeli checkpoint near the West Bank city of Hebron in a collective taxi, apparently filled with Palestinian labourers, public radio said.

Israel has choked off the Palestinian territories with a military blockade since the Palestinian uprising began in late September, keeping most Palestinians from being able to enter the Jewish state.

Hospital sources said one Palestinian died Tuesday of a heart attack while another lost her baby after being forced to wait at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank.

The clampdown is one of the most hotly contested questions between the two sides. Israel says the blockade is to preven further anti-Israeli attacks, while the Palestinians say it is blanket punishment for the nine-month-old uprising.

Israel has tightened security procedures amid fears of fresh attacks as the June 13 truce negotiated by US intelligence chief George Tenet has failed to take hold.

Nineteen Palestinians and 11 Israelis have been killed since then with both sides accusing the other of failing to hold the truce, which was seen as an initial step aimed at getting an international peace plan up and running.

Danny Naveh, the Israeli minister without portfolio, shrugged off criticism from abroad over the demolition of more than 20 Palestinian houses in east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip since Monday.

"I'm sorry about the American criticisms, which anyway are nothing new, but Israel will continue to destroy illegal Palestinian-built homes," he told public radio.

The demolitions were roundly condemned by Washington, Russia, the European Union and Israel's arch-foe Iran.

Hanan Ashrawi, a former Palestinian cabinet member and the new spokeswoman of the Arab League, said in Cairo that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wanted to purge the Palestinians from the region.

"Israel has not declared a war, but is waging a daily war ... through premeditated murder, the destruction of homes and ethnic cleansing," she told reporters.

Hardline Israeli Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau countered on army radio that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had made "murdering Jews the Palestinian national sport."

The faltering truce has sparked a new round of diplomatic initiatives to try to get the peace process back on track.

US envoy David Satterfield is due in the region this week for talks, while Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres -- increasingly the lone voice in the Israeli government urging peace with Arafat -- will go to Cairo on Sunday.

He will hold talks with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Maher, who will warn him about Israel's "provocative" policies, Egyptian officials said.

Meanwhile Gulf Arab foreign ministers opened an extraordinary meeting in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Wednesday to discuss the "the means to support the Palestinians in the face of Israel's aggressive policies," said a source close to the talks.

Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara, in Berlin accompanying Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, insisted the Golan Heights which have been occupied by Israel since 1967 should "return to Syria sooner or later."

Sharon said Tuesday the occupation was "irreversible."

A Palestinian suspected of collaborating with Israel was found shot dead in the West Bank town of Qalqilya, Palestinian sources said.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001

Answers

never boring over there, is it?

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001