Word: gaza
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...escalation brought with it the perverse hope that both sides might finally be persuaded to find a way out of the madness. Late last week top Israeli and Palestinian security officials met under CIA auspices to discuss a cease-fire, and the Israeli army eased travel restrictions in the Gaza Strip. On Friday Secretary of State Colin Powell cited the security meetings and a new Saudi peace initiative as causes for mild optimism. "Both sides are still trying to find a way forward," he said...
...police. On Tuesday gunmen from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah faction, ambushed and killed six Israeli soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint. That prompted Israeli assaults from land, air and sea against Arafat's few security buildings and police stations in the Gaza Strip and West Bank that haven't already been pulverized. After two days of bombardments, 26 Palestinians were dead. Sharon vowed he would not lead Israel into "all-out war," but many Israelis believe they are already in one. "The crisis is beginning to look chronic," says Nachman Ben-Yehuda, dean...
...ground, the Israeli and Palestinian belligerents may not notice. In just the last month, the ferocity of the conflict has taken on new dimensions. The catalyst for the current round of hostilities was the Feb. 14 bombing of an Israeli Merkava Mark 3 tank in the central Gaza Strip, which killed three Israeli soldiers. An Israeli official told Time the bomb contained the high-density plastic explosive C-4, large amounts of which the Israelis believe are being smuggled into Gaza through tunnels running under the Egyptian border. "It's frightening to think that the next suicide bomber will have...
...checkpoints play to the Palestinian street, since those barriers are commonly seen as symbols of humiliation. And Fatah leaders think continued assaults on Israeli military targets in the occupied territories, like the ones staged last week, will ultimately turn Israeli opinion against keeping settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip...
...latest escalation of violence has also created political divisions in Arafat's camp, among some of the men routinely touted as his potential successors. Guerrilla warfare works for Barghouti, for example, because many of the gunmen report to him. Less so for Arafat's West Bank and Gaza security chiefs, Jibril Rajoub and Mohammed Dahlan, whose organizations bear the brunt of Israeli retaliation and whose authority is undermined by the existence of independent armed militias in their midst. To the exasperation of his gendarmes, Arafat has refrained from directly challenging the right of those militias to function, even though...