A ten month old baby girl was murdered by a Palestinian
sniper on Monday afternoon in Hebron, a car bomb exploded in
the Talpiot neighborhood of Yerushalayim on Tuesday morning
(injuring five), a suicide bomber injured 29 including one
very seriously early Tuesday afternoon near French Hill in
Yerushalayim, an eighteen-year-old yeshiva student was
stabbed in his stomach by a young Arab on Tsafririm Street
in Ramot Monday afternoon(not hurt seriously), a huge car
bomb was dismantled last Wednesday in Meah Shearim (see
separate story) and the regular gun attacks continued at the
hotspots in Gaza and Yehuda, as Palestinian terrorists
attempted to provoke a harsh Israeli reaction in
"preparation" for the pan-Arab summit beginning Tuesday in
Amman, Jordan.
The Arabs have presented far from a unified front prior to
the summit. The Palestinian press has been full of criticism
of the Arab countries for not delivering on a pledge they
made five months ago to support the PA with $1 billion for
the current intifadah. Officially the Arab donors
blame "red tape" for the delay, but the more likely excuse
is the endemic corruption that characterizes the PA
institutions. Arab press organizations have featured stories
about the corruption.
Given this background, the PA would like some harsh Israeli
response to their terror to galvanize public support among
the Arabs for their cause. Another landmark is Palestinian
Land Day which occurs this Friday. The Palestinian
population is getting worn down by the pressure of the
Israeli closure around the cities and the lack of work, but
a strong Israeli reaction may bring out the demonstrators.
In recent months, there have been no mass demonstrations.
All the depraved murderous activity is the work of dedicated
terrorists attempting to murder and destroy whatever they
can.
However, the assessment of analysts in Israel is that Prime
Minister Sharon will not do anything until the end of the
Arab summit and the passing of Land Day this Friday. What he
will do then, and whether it will be effective, is
unknown.
In any event he is unlikely to follow the pattern of his
predecessor who regular reaction was to hold long Cabinet
meetings capped off with various threats. If things were
really extreme, Barak ordered the IDF to fire at a few empty
buildings somewhere in the PA territories. So far, this
pattern has not been followed by Sharon.
The IDF imposed an internal blockade and closure on Hebron
Monday night and a curfew on Palestinians living in the
Israeli-controlled section of the city, after Palestinian
snipers shot 10-month-old Shalhevet Techiya Pass,
Hy"d, in the head as she was in her mother Uriya's
arms, and moderately wounded her father Yitzhak, 24, in the
legs as they stood at the entrance to the Avrohom Ovinu
neighborhood.
Minutes after the attack, IDF tanks fired at a building in
the Abu Sneneh neighborhood on the hill opposite which was
identified as the source of the sniper fire. An intense
exchange of gunfire followed. The IDF called on Palestinian
residents in the neighborhood to evacuate their homes by 9
Monday night.
The Pass and Zarbiv families of Hebron are no strangers to
terror. The murder of 10-month-old Shalhevet Techiya Pass
and the wounding of her father Yitzhak were in addition to
three other terror attacks involving family members over the
past eight years. Until the recent attack, none were
fatal.
The Yesha Council said: "This very evening, the Abu Sneneh
area should be rid of the terrorists who lurk there." The
settlers assembled to recite Tehillim, and called
upon the government to regain control of the Abu Sneneh
hill.
Moshe Chico Ben-Zimra, a Hebron resident who was an
eyewitness to the murder, related that Yitzhak Pass stood at
the doorway to his home holding his infant daughter, when
precisely aimed gunshots were fired at them by a sniper from
the direction of Abu Sneneh. He noted that the Yitzhak and
Shalhevet are the first victims of Arab gunfire on the
Jewish settlement in Hebron since the beginning of the Al
Aqsa intifadah.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon placed the responsibility for
the attack squarely on the shoulders of the Palestinian
Authority. A senior advisor to Sharon said that past
experience indicates that sniper fire of this kind generally
comes from forces under PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's direct
control.
There is speculation that Sharon plans to step up direct
attacks against individual intifadah activists. During his
recent trip to Washington, Sharon told the Bush
administration that Israel will take action against those
involved in terror and responsible for sending the
terrorists, and that the US should not be "surprised" by
action on this front. There is speculation that Sharon plans
to target higher officials than were targeted in the
past.
According to Sharon's office, the prime minister told U.S.
Secretary Powell after the recent attack that Israel has
taken a series of steps to ease the economic conditions in
the territories in the last few days, but that Arafat has
not directed the terror to stop, and instead has stepped it
up. Sharon also said that Arafat's Force 17 was responsible
in recent days for mortar attacks on Israeli targets. Sharon
said that Israel tried to calm the situation, and stressed
that Israel is interested in moving towards peace.
Furthermore, he said, efforts to renew security coordination
with the Palestinians have met with only a partial response
from the PA.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said that the Hebron murder is
a "terrifying incident that shocks everyone." He said that
"horrible" incidents like that harm all attempts at
dialogue.
Peres rejected European demands to investigate human rights
violations in the territories, saying that the most
fundamental human right is to "live and remain alive."
PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, in Amman for the
Arab summit, told Reuters there is "no evidence" the infant
was killed by Palestinians, blaming the violence on the
occupation.
However, such attacks are a deliberate result of shooting by
expert marksmen, whose accuracy indicates that they did not
even tremble as they pressed the trigger with a ten month
old baby in their gunsight.
