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| Israel-Palestine |
| Israel destroys Palestinian airport runway |
| 2002-01-12 |
| In yet another act of blatant terror, Israel yesterday launched a second straight day of aggression against Palestinians, sending tanks into a Gaza Strip town after tearing up the runway at the Palestinians' airport. Later in the evening, Israeli tanks stormed the Gaza Strip airport again after bulldozing the runway of the airport, amid growing international pressure on the Palestinian Authority over a seized arms shipment. Palestinian security sources and witnesses said the tanks pushed three kilometers into Rafah, on the Egyptian border in a predawn raid, and that troops sealed off surrounding roads. A 62-year-old Palestinian man died of a heart attack when the troops fired on his home near a hospital, medical sources said. Around the same time, Israeli troops arrested a militant from the resistance group Hamas during a raid on an autonomous Palestinian village in the West Bank, an Israeli military spokesman said. The Palestinian Authority, already on the defensive over growing evidence it was involved in an attempt to smuggle 50 tons of arms into the territories, condemned the actions. "The Palestinian Authority is warning this Israeli aggression will make a big explosion ... create more violence in the region," said Nabil Abu Rudeina, a senior adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Col. Khaled Abu Al-Ula, head of the liaison committee in the Gaza Strip, charged the incursion constituted a "reoccupation of the sector." |
| Posted by:Fred |