Explosion kills four Palestinians
Four Palestinian militants were killed by an explosion in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to eyewitness reports.
No one has claimed responsibility for the bomb but the likely cause is a tit-for-tat revenge killing, media reports suggested.
Diplomatic channels seem exhausted; a war of words has erupted between Israel and Palestinian militants after undercover Israeli forces killed Abdullah Kawasme, a senior Hamas commander, in the West Bank on Saturday.
Israel leader Ariel Sharon said the operation in which Mr. Kawasme died was ‘successful and important.’
Following the murder of Mr. Kawasme, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said: ‘I regret we continue to find ourselves trapped in this action and counter-action, provocation and reaction to provocation.’
Anti-Israel Islamic militant group Hamas has vowed ‘thundering retaliation’ for Mr. Kawasme’s death.
Despite official affirmation of the ‘road map’ by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas as well as US President George W. Bush, Russia, Europe and the United Nations; the ‘quartet’ embracing the initiative, long-term peace in the Middle East seems unreachable at present, without an immediate end to militant activity.
The four have been identified as members of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades – a military faction of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah national movement.
In Gaza’s Beit Hanoun, they were allegedly killed by gun fire from Israeli tanks, although some witnesses said the four were intent on detonating the bomb, which exploded prematurely.
Earlier on Sunday, a 27-year-old Palestinian woman was shot dead by Israeli troops near Morag, a Jewish settlement in central Gaza, according to Palestinian medics said.
A glimmer of hope emerged on Sunday after US envoy John Wolf, leading the rollout of the road map, said a security deal with Israel was still reachable.
