But then it is the Arab regimes that are really co-responsible for what is happening today and for the lack of opposition to it. They have refused to stand up and be counted. They are too weak and co-opted, even they seem to believe, to present any credible force to stop the Israelis. Indeed Sharon's Army is on the march quite literally as the King of Jordan sits for coffee and a photo op with the American President in the Oval Office. So if the Arabs themselves will not oppose in any serious way what is happening, and if all the Arab Americans can muster is a few thousand of their own to gather in New York City to listen to themselves; well it becomes more understandable then why so few others are standing up to be counted at this crucial historical moment.

KHAN YUNIS REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip (AP - 11 April) - In a first foray into Palestinian territory, Israeli tanks and bulldozers rumbled into this refugee camp early Wednesday, razing or heavily damaging 30 homes and triggering an exchange of fire that killed two Palestinians and wounded more than two dozen.

The assault - retaliation for Palestinian mortar fire on Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip - marked the first time since the outbreak of fighting in the fall that Israeli ground troops entered Palestinian-controlled territory.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel had no interest in reoccupying Palestinian territory. Palestinian officials called for international intervention and said Israel crossed a red line by violating Palestinian sovereignty.

The violence cast doubts on U.S. efforts to convene a meeting of Israeli and Palestinian security commanders.

Residents of the Khan Yunis refugee camp said the Israeli attack began at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, when several tanks, armored personnel carriers and bulldozers advanced toward the camp as helicopter gunships hovered above. Shells were fired at the camp, drawing Palestinian return fire, witnesses said. The army said Palestinians also fired more mortars at nearby Jewish settlements.

``We started running from our homes ... while they were firing toward us and bulldozers started destroying our homes without giving us a warning, without giving us a chance to take out some clothes and furniture,'' said camp resident Imad Abu Namous, 42, a father of seven who lost his home in the assault.

By daybreak, hundreds of camp residents were sifting through the rubble. One woman carried a metal tray piled with pots and pans on her head, while a group of men pulled pillows and blankets from the rubble. One man tried to retrieve a ceiling fan still linked by an electric wire to the remains of the ceiling.

Standing in the ruins of his bedroom, a 9-year-old boy picked up bits of red plastic, the remains of a toy fire engine his father had bought him after returning from the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, last month. ``I lost my only toy car. I hate them (the Israelis),'' said the boy, Osama Hassouneh.

The mayor of Khan Yunis, Osama Fara, said 15 homes were razed completely and another 15 heavily damaged, leaving hundreds of people homeless.

Palestinian doctors said a policeman and a civilian died from shrapnel injuries and 27 people were wounded. Among those hurt were three journalists, including Mohammed Shanaa, a 27-year-old TV soundman who suffered serious back injuries.

Since fighting broke out in the fall, 466 people have been killed, including 383 Palestinians, 64 Israeli Jews and 19 others. In the West Bank, a 19-year-old Palestinian critically wounded by Israeli fire last week died Wednesday.

The Israeli army said it destroyed 11 buildings and insisted they were vacant.

Ben-Eliezer, the Israeli defense minister, said troops attacked an area from which mortar shells were repeatedly fired at Jewish settlements.

``The order was ... to go in and destroy the same posts from which our communities were shelled. These are points we don't want the Palestinians to return to,'' Ben-Eliezer told Israel radio. ``This is a clear act of defense.''

Israel has said Palestinians have fired more than 50 mortar shells at Gaza settlements in recent days.

Nabil Aburdeneh, a senior adviser to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, called for immediate U.S. intervention. ``The situation has now crossed a red line,'' Aburdeneh told the Voice of Palestine radio station.

The Israeli defense said Israel was interested in attending U.S.-hosted security talks, which had tentatively been scheduled for Wednesday. Aburdeneh said the Palestinians had not yet decided whether to participate.

``With all these attacks and aggression, Israel makes it very difficult for us to decide whether to go to these meetings or not,'' Aburdeneh said.

In recent weeks, Israel has been targeting Palestinian police headquarters and outposts with helicopter and tank fire and rockets, responding to Palestinian mortar barrages at Israeli settlements in Gaza and villages just outside the territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he had a comprehensive plan to stop the violence and pledged that ``security would be restored.''

In an interview published Tuesday, Sharon warned that Israel would annex Jewish settlements and other areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip if Arafat unilaterally declared a state.

When asked if annexation of disputed territories would be an option in such a case, Sharon told the Haaretz daily: ``Certainly. All that is needed. Therefore I would advise him not to do that.''

Sharon also said he would not evacuate any Jewish settlements, even in the framework of a peace accord. He told the Haaretz daily that the settlements protect Israeli resources and give the nation strategic depth.

Palestinians demand the removal of all settlements from the West Bank and Gaza, where they want to set up a state. The United States has labeled the settlements an obstacle to peace.

GAZA (Reuters - 11 April) - Fierce fighting erupted between Israeli soldiers and hundreds of Palestinian gunmen early on Wednesday when Palestinians said Israeli tanks and bulldozers thrust into a Gaza Strip refugee camp.

Palestinian witnesses said mosques in Khan Younis camp broadcast announcements over loud speakers urging everyone with a weapon to rush to the camp's defense on behalf of jihad (holy struggle) against the Israeli soldiers.

The clash erupted just after a Palestinian official had said senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials would meet later in the day to try again to put an end to six months of violence in the West Bank and Gaza.

In Washington, President Bush met Jordan's King Abdullah for talks Tuesday and said he was ``very interested in working with all parties'' in trying to get the opposing sides to ``lay down their arms.''

The Israeli army said it had entered an area of the Palestinian-ruled Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza to demolish homes and an olive grove which Palestinian gunmen had been using for cover to fire on Jewish settlements and soldiers.

The army said the activity was part of a ``continuous operation'' meant to hit ``sources responsible for terror.''

The Nasr hospital in Khan Younis said it was treating 20 people, and four in critical condition would be transferred to Gaza City's Shifa hospital.

No Israelis were injured in the fighting that included heavy machinegun fire, mortar bombs and tank shells.

Witnesses said soldiers had thrust some 200 meters (yards) into the camp using bulldozers to remove sand embankments which the army has in the past accused Palestinian gunmen of using to shoot at a nearby army base and Jewish settlements.

Palestinians say the embankments are on the edge of Palestinian-controlled territory and Israel has no right to enter the area.

Israel Radio reported the overnight operation signaled an escalation because it was the largest Israeli force to enter a Palestinian-ruled area since the start of the uprising in September.

An army spokeswoman could not confirm it was the largest force to enter a Palestinian-ruled area, but said: ``They were definitely large forces. There is no doubt about that.''

The Gaza Strip, 40 km (25 miles) long and as little as six km (four miles) wide, is home to around a million Palestinians, most of them refugees who fled areas of what is now Israel at the creation of the Jewish state in 1948.

Two Israeli tanks firing shells and heavy machinegun fire accompanied the two bulldozers which witnesses said were being used also to begin demolishing Palestinian houses which face Jewish settlements, the nearest of which is Neve Dekalim.

The Israelis were met by hundreds of Palestinian civilian gunmen and national security forces, witnesses said. Chants of Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) echoed through the streets.

The camp's power was knocked out, cloaking the clash in nearly total darkness. Witnesses said one house was set ablaze when it was hit by a tank shell. They said an Israeli army helicopter hovered overhead.

In a similar confrontation over an embankment which raged for hours overnight in December, Israeli forces killed four Palestinian policemen and wounded 70 people.

Tuesday, Israeli missile attacks killed a Palestinian police medical officer and wounded 17 policemen in the Gaza Strip after Palestinians launched mortar bombs at a Jewish settlement.

At least 371 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs and 71 other Israelis have been killed in the violence that erupted after peace talks deadlocked. Israel and the Palestinians blame each other for the bloodshed.

Before the clash erupted after midnight Wednesday, a Palestinian official said: ``Security officials from both sides will meet Wednesday.'' He did not say where the meeting would take place or whether U.S. officials would attend.

In a report Wednesday, the international group Human Rights Watch said that both Palestinians and Israelis, including the army and Jewish settlers, had committed rights abuses against civilians in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Hebron is a flashpoint of the uprising, with about 400 Jewish settlers living and studying in the midst of 140,000 Palestinians, making it unique in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Mid-East Realities

www.middleeast.org

Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/4/148.htm