Israel sends tanks into Gaza

Israel sent tanks into central Gaza early today, blowing up a building in one refugee camp and searching another, hours before a special session of the Palestinian parliament.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was to address today’s parliamentary session and call for an end to Palestinian suicide bomb attacks against Israeli civilians, according to an advance text of his speech.

The meeting was to proceed despite Israel’s refusal to allow 12 members of the body to travel from Gaza to the parliament building in the West Bank town of Ramallah, citing security reasons.

Israeli troops control the entries and exits to Ramallah, and with Gaza fenced in and separated from the West Bank by 25 miles of Israeli land, Israel also controls movement between the two parts of Palestinian territory.

In Gaza, Palestinian security said around 60 Israeli tanks moved south from Gaza City and surrounded the three main refugee camps in central Gaza.

Residents of the Bourej camp said soldiers ordered families out of a two-storey house where a suspected militant lived and blew up the building. The militant has been underground for several months, the residents said.

Troops searched the Nusseirat camp, across the main highway from Bourej and also surrounded the nearby Mughazi camp. Some exchanges of fire were heard, but no casualties were reported.

Israeli military sources said the operation in Gaza was local, not an attempt to reoccupy the area, and when the mission was completed, the soldiers would withdraw.

The Palestinian Security Directorate issued a statement early today, calling the military move “dangerous escalation” and an Israeli attempt to “sabotage all efforts by the Palestinian Authority to implement the understanding” to ease tensions in Gaza by turning areas back to Palestinian control.

Late yesterday an Israeli tank shelled a Palestinian vehicle near the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing two of the occupants.

Israeli military sources said troops identified two men on foot moving under cover of darkness toward the fence between Israeli and Palestinian territory and opened fire.

A draft copy of the speech Mr Arafat is to deliver before the Palestinian parliament said the world was waiting for a clear signal that the Palestinians saw peaceful negotiations as the way to resolve their dispute with Israel.

“The Palestinian people is standing against all types of terrorism, whether it is state terror or individual terror,” the text said. “The Palestinian Legislative Council has to protect Palestinian national interests through final recognition of the state of Israel and the right of its people to live in peace and security.”

It argued that Palestinian bomb attacks gave Israel justification for harsh retaliation.

“Suicide attacks against Israeli civilians in buses, restaurants, cafes and universities give the Israeli government the ability to hide its crimes,” the draft said.

In today’s session, members will discuss procedures for holding presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections due by January 2003. The voting is seen as integral to promised Palestinian reforms to inject checks and balances into a regime which has so far been Arafat’s sole fiefdom.

Palestinian officials said some lawmakers want to raise the idea of electing a prime minister who would actively head the government, while Mr rafat, as president, became titular head of state with little or no executive power.