From BBC.com Sunday, 17 November, 2002, 13:34 GMT Sharon 'to bolster' Hebron settlers Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Israel must respond to Friday's ambush in Hebron by creating "new facts" on the ground and bolstering Jewish settlements in the West Bank city. He was speaking during a tour of Hebron ahead of a cabinet meeting called to discuss how to respond to the attack, which claimed 12 Israeli lives and left three Palestinian attackers dead. Mr Sharon said Israel must "exploit the opportunity to create new facts in the field and create contiguity" between Jewish enclaves in Hebron and the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement, according to a report on Israel radio. Hebron About 450 Jewish settlers live alongside 130,000 Palestinians Divided into Israeli and Palestinian-controlled sectors under an interim peace deal in 1997 Frequent scene of violent clashes Jewish settlers are reported to have already set up a tented settlement at the scene of the ambush, and have called on the army to let them stay after a seven-day mourning period. Israeli troops have poured back into Palestinian-administered Hebron - which makes up 80% of the city - as well as arresting relatives of the attackers and dozens of suspected members of Islamic Jihad, which issued a claim of responsibility. Troops have taken control of strategic buildings, and destroyed several other homes and an olive grove in which the gunmen are said to have hidden. Bloody ambush The heavy casualties on Friday have triggered questions in Israel about the army's handling of the situation. An army colonel was among the 12 dead, the highest-ranking officer to die since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule began in September 2000. The attack began when shots were fired at a column of settlers and their border police guards as they walked from Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs to Kiryat Arba after prayers to mark the start of Sabbath. Troops and armed settlers returned fire and gave chase into a narrow alley, where they cut down in an ambush. Elsewhere on Sunday, Israeli helicopters carried out a raid on Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, destroying a metal workshop which the army said had been used to manufacture weapons for Palestinian militants. Israeli soldiers also shot dead a 65-year-old Palestinian shepherd near Qalqilya in the West Bank. Troops first shouted at the man, then fired warning shots in the air to stop before firing at him - in the legs - the army said. Rightwing rivals Mr Sharon is under pressure from rightwing cabinet colleagues to step up military action in the Palestinian territories, with security at the top of the agenda in the run-up to snap elections in January 2003. " All the accords agreed by Israel have been annulled by Arafat himself " Binyamin Netanyahu Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu - who is vying for the leadership of the Likud party with Mr Sharon - told Israel Radio that he believed the peace deals with the Palestinians were now dead. Changes in the administrative status of Hebron would mean re-writing a US-brokered deal signed by Mr Netanyahu himself when he was prime minister - an arrangement that damaged his standing in the powerful settler lobby. The 1997 Hebron Protocol split the 130,000-strong city between Palestinian rule in one part of it and Israeli rule in the remaining 20%, to guarantee the security of about 400 militant settlers who live in Jewish enclaves. Mr Netanyahu said on Sunday: "All the accords agreed by Israel have been annulled by [Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat. I have always believed that the application of the accords required reciprocity." Israel blames Mr Arafat - who has been pinned down by Israeli troops in his ruined Ramallah headquarters for most of the past year - for failing to prevent Palestinian militant attacks.
Mr Sharon said Israel must "exploit the opportunity to create new facts in the field and create contiguity" between Jewish enclaves in Hebron and the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement, according to a report on Israel radio. This is why there's not going to be peace in the Middle East. I have no doubt the majority of people on both sides want peace. Unfortunately, the leadership on both sides constantly undermine that by trying to expand their territory (Israel) and not squelching terrorism (Palestinians). It's like the leadership on both sides want to create war and the people are the ones getting screwed.
