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FOREIGNERS AND U.N. EVACUATING GAZA
ARAFAT TRIES TO CAPITULATE HOPING FOR INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT
GENERAL POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE, CANCELS LATIN VISIT
TO STAY IN WASHINGTON AS WAR BREWS IN MIDDLE EAST
"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."
U.S. Embassy, Israel
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.
MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 6/02:
Arafat is in an impossible situation, one prepared for him by his worst enemies but
one he has considerably helped put himself in by incompetence, corruption, and
ineptitude. If he turns to severe repression of his own people on orders from the
Israelis and the CIA, the only way the Intifada can now be stopped, he creates the
conditions for his own eventual demise from within, and maybe a Palestinian civil war.
If he does not, the clock for demolishing his "Authority" and exiling or even
capturing him is ticking. There have been other moments in history like this in the
Middle East, often with non other than General Ariel Sharon in command at one crucial
level or another. Sharon waited more than a year for the excuse to invade Lebanon in
1982, and then pounced when Israel's Ambassador in London was shot even though Prime
Minister Maggie Thatcher at the time publicly went on record that those who did it
were anti-PLO anti-Arafat Palestinians. It appears Sharon has once more set the
stage, is now waiting for and provoking the excuse, with the tanks positioned and set
to roll.
FOREIGNERS LEAVE GAZA STRIP
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip –– Associated Press, 2 June:
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.
The foreigners packed lightly, expecting to return within a few
days, after
being contacted by their consulates and embassies in Israel, said a
Palestinian employee of a foreign consulate who requested anonymity.
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.
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.
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.
ISRAEL GIVES ARAFAT 24 HOURS TO WORK FOR CEASEFIRE
JERUSALEM, June 2 (AFP) - A tough Israeli response to the Tel Aviv bombing looked
unlikely Saturday evening, as Israel gave Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat 24 hours to
carry out his promise that he would do "whatever is necessary" to achieve a ceasefire.
Following Arafat's pledge, Israel's inner security cabinet gave Arafat no more than 24
hours to prove he wants to work to calm the violent situation in the region, according
to Israeli public radio.
The Tel Aviv suicide bombing, which left 19 dead and more than 100 injured, was the
deadliest incident so far in the eight-month Palestinian uprising against Israeli
occupation, and brought the death toll to nearly 600.
The Gaza Strip was eerily silent on Saturday, with Palestinians evacuating public
buildings in fear that Israel would abandon its 10-day-old unilateral ceasefire and
come at them with all guns blazing, witnesses said.
Despite wide Israeli scepticism over Arafat's declaration, Israeli Arab parliament
member Ahmed Tibi told Israeli television that Arafat had already started to work for
a ceasefire.
"Arafat made an important declaration to that effect and has started to phone his aids
over the past hours in order to make sure his commitment to a return to calm is
carried out in the field", Tibi said after a meeting with the Palestinian leader.
Pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to strike back at the Palestinians has
been mounting domestically, with demonstrators calling for "war" outside the defence
ministry in Tel Aviv where Sharon met with senior ministers and military chiefs.
Israeli Science and Culture Minister Matan Vilnai, a member of the security cabinet,
implied Israel would wait to see if Arafat's ceasefire statement is consolidated by
acts on the ground.
"He says he will do everything. Let him do it, and we will see."
For his part, Dan Meridor, the head of the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and
defense committee, said: "The ball is in Arafat's court. The only way for him to avoid
dangerous developments is to clearly order a ceasefire on his radio".
"We are in the process of judging how serious this order is, if he arrests the men in
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, in all about 100 terrorist experts whom he has previously
freed," Meridor said about Arafat's declaration.
But Israeli television's military commentator reported that the security cabinet had
secretly decided to break its unilateral ceasefire without authorising any spectacular
military strikes that could harm Israel's image.
Arafat condemned Friday's as-yet-unclaimed attack, which ripped through a line of
Israeli teenagers waiting to enter a beachside night club, saying he was against any
killing of civilians.
"We are ready to make the utmost effort to stop the bloodbath among our people and the
Israeli people, and to do whatever is necessary for an immediate and unconditional
ceasefire," Arafat told reporters.
Shortly afterwards, senior Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erakat, called for US
Middle East envoy William Burns to return to the region immediately to help the sides
work to implement a ceasefire.
Three radical Palestinian groups, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine groups, which have mounted previous suicide bomb attacks,
refrained from claiming responsibility.
But Hamas politbureau chief Khaled Meshaal justified the attack as a form of
"self-defence" and said more suicide bombings would surely follow.
"Nothing can halt these attacks and resistance except the departure of (Israel's)
occupation forces" from Palestinian land, he said.
Seven people were lightly injured Saturday in clashes with police as hundreds of
enraged Israelis sought revenge against Arabs after the bomb blast, throwing rocks at
a mosque near the Tel Aviv neighborhood of Jaffa.
The Israeli army said Saturday it had imposed a blockade on all Palestinian towns and
villages in the neighbouring West Bank following the bombing and advised all
Palestinians to leave Israel immediately.
Israeli leaders roundly condemned Arafat for the bombing, saying he had not taken
action against perpetrators of violence.
US President George W. Bush had earlier urged Arafat to call for an "immediate
ceasefire" after the Tel Aviv bombing which he denounced as a "heinous terrorist
attack."
"There is no justification for senseless attacks against innocent civilians," Bush
said in a statement issued from the presidential resort in Camp David, Maryland.
Condemnations of the attack poured in from numerous other world capitals, the European
Union and the United Nations, while Egypt, Jordan and Russia called for restraint.
Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer accused Arafat of wanting "to provoke
chaos in the Middle East."
Following the security cabinet meeting, Sharon's office said the security situation
had forced the premier to cancel a trip planned for next week to Germany, Belgium and
France to press Israel's case among European leaders.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and US Secretary of State Colin Powell both
cancelled a visit to an Organization of American States meeting in Costa Rica.
Israeli Communications Minister Reuvin Rivlin suggested Saturday that Israel might
expel Arafat from the territories if he does not bring an end to the violence,
underlining that it was only a possibility.
"Arafat himself is saying that he is controlling everything on the Palestinian side.
If he can't, let him leave Palestine," Rivlin said. "Maybe we should send him far away
from Gaza," Rivlin told AFP.
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