The Hindu : Israel: clashes during evacuation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 20, 2003

International

International

Israel: clashes during evacuation

Jerusalem June 19. A day before the arrival of the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, Israel today began evacuating the first inhabited Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank as part of the ``road map" peace plan, despite fierce resistance from settlers.

Mitzpeh Yitzhar, near Nablus, is the first populated outpost the army has dismantled since the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, began uprooting them on June 9, as part of the international ``road map'' peace plan. Ten uninhabited outposts were removed last week.

Settlers clashed with soldiers and ignited Palestinian-owned wheat fields and olive groves in the outpost in an attempt to disrupt the operation, army radio said.

Four police officers and three settlers suffered minor injuries in the clashes. The army placed a closure on all settlements near the outpost and erected roadblocks to prevent additional settlers from joining the fray. Some of the settlers, who lay on the roads to prevent army movement towards the settlement, were arrested. — UNI

Suicide blast

AP reports:

A suicide bomber blew himself up in an Israeli grocery store early Thursday, killing one man, despite an intense push by Palestinian and international leaders to persuade militant groups to end such attacks.

The Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, met on Thursday the DFLP and PFLP, to bring about a change in the situation.

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