ISRAELIS DEAD, PALESTINIANS ASSASSINATED

REGION "ON THE BRINK"

It didn't take long for the Israelis, now Sharon-led, to start creating the escalating provocations that will then bring about still more Palestinian rage which will then give the Israelis the excuse they seek to pulverize the Palestinians still harder, possibly destroying the regime they earlier created, and possibly leading to another Palestinian "nakbah" (disaster). The Arab "client regimes" -- individually and collectively -- remain far too weak, far too divided, far too co-opted, and far too corrupted, to do much about it.

The seeds for all this were planted quite some time ago, many by Ariel Sharon himself. And Shimon Peres, about to become Sharon's Foreign Minister, will it appears lend himself to all this and help "legitimize" it -- another despicable display of his own personal duplicity, chicanery and treachery.

7 ISRAELIS DEAD IN BUS HIT-AND-RUN

JERUSALEM -- AP, 14 February: A Palestinian drove a bus into a group of Israelis waiting at a bus stop, killing seven and wounding at least 10 in what police said was a terror attack - one of the worst against Israel in years.

The driver fled in the bus and was caught after a high-speed chase by police who fired shots at the vehicle and seriously injured the driver.

The hit-and-run occurred at a crowded bus stop south of Tel Aviv. Many of the casualties were soldiers.

Several bodies covered by blankets lay by the roadside, as paramedics led away dazed survivors. Shoes, jackets and personal belongings were strewn across the road.

Police Commissioner Shlomo Ahronishki said he was "absolutely certain" that the hit-and-run was a terror attack.

Paramedics said at least 10 people were injured, including six who were in moderate or serious condition.

The bus, owned by the Israeli company Egged, had transported Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip to Israel.

Witnesses said the bus ran into the soldiers as they stood at a bus stop in south Tel Aviv. The bus then raced southwards, towards the city of Ashdod, but about 10 miles to the south police opened fire on the bus, which crashed into the back of a truck and stopped, witnesses said.

Egged bus company spokesman Ron Rattner said the driver was a Palestinian who had clearance from security services to drive Palestinian workers into Israel.

The deaths deaths brought to nearly 400 the number of people killed in nearly five months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, including more than 320 Palestinians.

U.S. SAYS MIDEAST SECURITY SITUATION 'SERIOUSLY DETERIORATING'

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (AFP) - The United States said Tuesday the security situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories had seriously deteroriated since the weekend and threatened to spiral out of control.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said political assassinations carried out by Israel and attacks on Israeli settlers by Palestinians had to stop if peace talks were to resume.

"Our assessment is that the events of the last 48 hours represent a serious deterioration of the security situation on the ground at a time that we all recognize is very, very sensitive," Boucher told reporters.

"The use of Israeli helicopter gunships, Palestinian attacks against settlements and motorists, the use of mortars by Palestinians and the targeted killings by the Israeli defense force today are producing a new cycle of action or reaction which can become impossible to control," he said.

Boucher referred to the latest in a series of pinpoint strikes against Palestinian activists in which the Israeli army killed a senior officer in Yasser Arafat's personal bodyguard, accusing Massud Ayyad of being a terrorist.

Ayyad was killed when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a volley of rockets on his car in the northern Gaza Strip. In Gaza and elsewhere, two Palestinians were killed in other incidents and gunbattles raged, leaving around 36 Palestinians wounded.

"Both the Israelis and the Palestinians need to do everything they can to stop the violence, to maintain calm, and to create the right environment for dialogue and negotiation," Boucher said.

He spoke as envoys sent to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon met with US State Department officials and a Palestinian official urged President George W. Bush "not to repeat the mistakes of the past" in the peace.

ARAFAT BODYGUARD KILLED AS ISRAEL TARGETS HIZBOLLAH
By Eric Silver in Jerusalem

[The Independent, UK, 14 February 2001]: An Israeli helicopter gunship killed an officer in Yasser Arafat's Force 17 bodyguard as he drove past a Gaza refugee camp yesterday. Israel alleged that Massoud Ayyad led a Hizbollah cell that fired twice on a Jewish settlement, plotted to kidnap Israeli soldiers and smuggled arms into the Palestinian territory.

It is the first specific allegation that the Lebanese Islamic militia is operating in the Gaza Strip or West Bank, and Israeli troops along the Lebanese border were placed on high alert against possible reprisals. Major Ayyad, 54, was said to have visited Hizbollah commanders in Lebanon last summer and to have operated under their orders ever since.

Major Ayyad was alone in his car when it was destroyed by rocket fire. It was the first assassination since December and one of the first acknowledged by Israel. The outgoing Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, said it sent "a clear message to anyone who is planning to attack Israelis that they will not be able to do so with impunity".

The Palestinian Justice Minister, Freih Abu Medein, denied that Major Ayyad, whom he knew personally, was a Hizbollah agent and accused Israel of a war crime in killing him.

Previous Israeli assassinations of Palestinians have been widely criticised by the international community.

The USresponded to events with a gloomy prognosis. Richard Boucher, the US state department spokesman, said events represented "a serious deterioration of the security situation on the ground at a time that we all recognise is very, very sensitive."

He added: "The use of Israeli helicopter gunships, Palestinian attacks against settlements and motorists, the use of mortars by Palestinians and the targeted killings by the Israeli defence force today are producing a new cycle of action or reaction which can become impossible to control."

Israeli spokesmen admitted Major Ayyad had not actually killed anyone, but claimed that his cell had made a series of potentially lethal attacks since December. They were said to have included two mortar shells fired at the Netzarim settlement, one of which hit a roof, and a strike at a civilian bus with anti-tank grenades.

The Deputy Defence Minister, Ephraim Sneh, dismissed suggestions that the killing was too severe for a man with no blood on his hands. "If we didn't touch him," he asked, "and tonight another mortar shell killed Israelis, how would I look their relatives in the eye?"

Israel arrested Nasser, Major Ayyad's son and an alleged member of his Hizbollah cell, last month. The first mortar attack on Netzarim followed the next day. An Israeli military spokesman, Brigadier General Ron Kitrey, said yesterday: "We had solid information that Massoud Ayyad continued intensive activity to carry out additional attacks." Some Israeli commentators have depicted the entry of Hizbollah into Gaza as the "Lebanonisation" of the Palestinian territories. General Kitrey refused to go that far, but noted "certain elements" reminiscent of the war in Lebanon.

A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was also killed in Gaza yesterday. Palestinian witnesses claimed he was shot dead by Israeli soldiers while he and a group of friends walked on a road near an Israeli guard post near Netzarim. The army denied opening fire in that area.

Meanwhile, Likud and Labour were reported last night to be close to a deal to form a national-unity government under Ariel Sharon, who beat Mr Barak in last week's elections. Mr Sharon has offered Labour two of the three senior portfolios: defence, foreign affairs and finance.

ISRAELIS SHELL HOUSES IN WEST BANK, GAZA
By SAUD ABU RAMADAN

GAZA, Feb 13 (UPI) -- Israeli soldiers shelled Tuesday several Palestinian towns and refugee camps in the West bank and Gaza Strip, wounding more than 100 people and causing damages to several houses, Palestinian sources said.

The sources said that the fiercest clashes took place all day and night in the western part of the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.

Palestinian medical sources said that at least 100 Palestinians from Khan Younis were injured. Among the casualties, was a Palestinian ambulance driver shot while he was trying to rescue a group of children.

Witnesses said tanks fired their cannons near the Jewish settlement of Neveh Dekalim, west of Khan Younis. Israeli tanks had also shelled houses in Rafah and also in the West Bank towns of Hebron, Bethlehem, Bethjallah and Nablus, wounding at least 10 people and causing severe damage to several houses.

Yasser Sheikh Ali, a Palestinian doctor who works at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, claimed Tuesday that Israel in the past few days has been using a gas against Palestinians that causes convulsions, spasms and breathing difficulties.

More than 80 people have been seen at the hospital with the symptoms after soldiers reportedly fired shells that exploded and released clouds of white smoke. Blood tests showed the gas included chemicals that affect the nerves and the breathing process, Ali said.

Meanwhile, the director general of Gaza airport, Brig. Salman Abu Haleeb, announced late Tuesday that Israel had shut down Gaza International Airport for security reasons until a further notice.

"The closure of the airport coincided with preparations by about 8,000 Palestinians who were supposed to fly to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage season," he told the Voice of Palestine radio.