Tuesday, Oct 07, 2003
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By Atul Aneja
Hamas, in a statement, exhorted its fighters to "respond quickly, and in the heart of the Zionist entity (Israel)" after accusing Tel Aviv of escalating the conflict. The group claimed that it had already fired 16 mortar shells on Israeli settlements inside the Gaza strip. Ramadan Abdullah, the leader of Islamic Jihad, on his part, pledged on Sunday to launch more suicide attacks against Israel. "The Haifa operation will not be the last resistance operation in Palestine," he said in an interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television. The Syrian Foreign Minister, Farouk al Sharaa, accused Israel of "aggression" and warned that Syria was capable of a "deterring balance to force Israel to review" its action. Some editorials in the local press urged Syrians to draw inspiration from the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, which saw Syrian and Egyptian forces launching a joint attack on the Israeli-held Sinai peninsula exactly 30 years ago. "Our armed forces, under the leadership of President, Bashar al-Assad, need to study and analyse the tactics of the October war. They should evaluate positions and outcomes to achieve greater firmness and readiness, to ensure a superior fighting force to face a belligerent enemy, which knows nothing but betrayal and deceit" the Tishrin daily from Damascus said. The Egyptian daily, Al Ahram also recalled the "victory of the October war" achieved through the bravery of Egyptian soldiers. Many newspapers have urged the need for re-cementing Arab and Islamic unity in the wake of the Israeli provocation. Iran's Persian daily, Hambastegi, pointed out that, "in view of the United States and Europe's unstinting support for Israel, the only way of reducing these kinds of incidents is a return to a renewed unity around the axis of unifying issues in the Islamic and Arab world." The Israeli raid has been a subject of bitter official condemnation throughout the region. Amr-Moussa, the Secretary-General of the 22-nation Arab League called the air strike an expression of "state terrorism", which reflected Israel's " aggressive intentions against all Arab territory, be it Syrian, Lebanese or Palestinian". The Iranian Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharrazi, said the Israeli raid was a clear violation of the territorial integrity of a sovereign state. By doing so, the Israeli regime had sought to escape from the realities of occupation of Palestinian lands and the repercussions arising from this act, he observed. In Lebanon, Prime Minister, Rafik al-Hariri's office said the premier had called French President Jacques Chirac to discuss the "dangerous regional situation". Jordan, meanwhile, combined its condemnation of Israel with an apparent criticism of Palestinian suicide attacks.
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