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Newsletter : 1fax0710.txt
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>JN July 10, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 115
Bomb Threat Causes Tel Aviv Airport Delays
By VOA News
Warnings of a bomb attack at Israel's main airport caused huge traffic jams and long delays Monday. Police stopped and searched all vehicles and people entering Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, after intelligence services received specific warnings of an imminent attack.
Frustrated passengers abandoned vehicles along the highway as traffic entering the airport backed up at least one kilometer on major roadways.
Bombs in West Bank and Gaza: Violence Escalates
By Meredith Buel (VOA-Jerusalem)
An Israeli army officer was killed and a suicide bomber blew himself up as renewed violence ripped through the Palestinian territories Monday. An Israeli army captain who was part of an elite undercover unit died from wounds sustained when a roadside bomb exploded near his jeep outside the West Bank town of Hebron.
In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a truck he was driving that was packed with explosives. The bomber's body was found at the scene and no one else was hurt. The truck exploded near an army checkpoint close to a block of Jewish settlements. The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the blast.
Hamas released a video of the incident showing the truck exploding and large plumes of smoke billowing into the air. Palestinians said an accomplice of the man was arrested and was being questioned.
Israeli cabinet secretary Gideon Saar says Israel had given the Palestinian Authority information about the suicide bomber before the attack, but charged that nothing was done to prevent the bombing. Hamas officials warned Sunday that the group has 10 suicide bombers ready to strike Israeli targets.
Israelis Demolish Palestinian Houses
By Art Chimes (VOA-Shuafat Refugee Camp)
Israeli bulldozers Monday destroyed about 12 Palestinian houses being built at the edge of a refugee camp in Jerusalem in one of the largest demolition campaigns in years.
Backed by hundreds of troops, Israeli bulldozers plowed into the houses, and authorities confirmed others were slated for destruction. Although the houses were still under construction, at least some were already occupied.
The owner of one of the houses, Ayman Bakir, said he had invested about $13,000 in what is now just a pile of rubble. "Yesterday afternoon they came with the demolition order and today we tried to get help to stop the demolition, but we were surprised to see the bulldozers immediately demolishing the houses."
The houses, reduced to slabs of concrete with reinforcing metal bars sticking out here and there, are across a valley from Pisgat Ze'ev - Jewish homes built in what Palestinians regard as the occupied West Bank, but which Israel considers a legally annexed neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert defended the demolitions, saying the houses had no building permits, and he had no choice but to enforce the law. Palestinians say municipal officials refuse to issue permits, so they have to build their houses without the proper paperwork.
Although the destroyed houses were on land belonging to the Islamic trust - the Wakf - not to the U.N.-run refugee camp, U.N. spokesman Sami M'shasha was at the site and described the house demolitions as a tragedy in what he called a stark violation of international law.
He admitted that the U.N. refugee agency, UNRWA, could do little in this case, since the demolished houses were actually outside the boundaries of the refugee camp. He says the United Nations would offer tents to the families who lived in the houses.
Hizbullah Warns U.N. Against Sharing Video with Israel
By VOA News
The leader of Hizbullah has warned the United Nations against showing Israel a videotape made following the seizure of three Israeli soldiers last year by the Lebanese terrorist group.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told a gathering in Beirut Monday that Hizbullah would consider U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon spies if Israel is given a copy of the videotape. He said handing over the tape would be viewed as an act of sharing information with the enemy, despite the lack of any new information in the recording.
Nasrallah also said the group will provide no new details on the condition of the three captured soldiers, and a fourth Israeli prisoner, until Israel agrees to release a number of Lebanese and other Arab prisoners in Israeli jails.
Israel has demanded U.N. officials turn over an unedited version of the videotape, believing it may reveal the identities of people involved in the abduction. U.N. officials have offered to show Israeli authorities a version of the video which obscures all faces other than those of U.N. soldiers.
U.N. peacekeepers made the videotape last October - one day after the capture of three Israeli soldiers in the disputed Shebaa farms region. Israeli officials say they want the full tape to better understand what happened.
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