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| Middle East |
| Fallout still splattering from Shehadeh fan... |
| 2002-07-24 |
| Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Wednesday that Israeli would withdraw troops from some West Bank cities and had released millions of dollars in frozen tax money in concessions to Palestinians after stinging criticism of an air strike that killed 14 civilians as well as a Hamas leader. Hit them with a big stick, then feed them some carrot... The gesture came as Israeli officials defended the bombing and dismissed reports that a cease-fire declaration had just been signed by militant groups before the attack. Slight exaggeration there... However, those officials also acknowledged military intelligence that led to Israel's raid was flawed. "It's quite clear that those (assessments) are not as accurate or as fail-safe as we would like and clearly there are going to be lessons that have to be learned from this operation," said Daniel Taub, a Foreign Ministry spokesman. Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Israel's Cabinet, "according to the information which we had there were no civilians near him and we express sorrow for the injuries to them." The army said it would investigate. "We'll get back to you on that..." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |