Israel Continues Reoccupation Amid Continued Violence

A 6-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl were among the dead, as was the deputy director of the city’s education department.

According to the Israeli army, the soldiers mistakenly fired at Palestinians who were unknowingly violating a three-day Israeli-imposed curfew.

Israeli defense officials said the soldiers made a mistake in firing on the civilian crowd.

Palestinians said they believed the curfew had been lifted at the time of the shooting.

“People thought the curfew was no longer on,” Jenin’s acting governor, Haider Irsheid, said. “They got hungry and wanted bread, so they went to the market to buy some. The Israelis opened fire.”

Also Friday, Israelis from the West Bank settlement of Itamar killed a Palestinian during a post-funeral rampage in Hawara village. According to hospital officials, the Israelis began shooting in the streets and set fire to cars and a home.

In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian who threw a grenade at Israeli forces in an industrial park located between Israel and Gaza was killed when Israeli forces fired back. Israeli military officials said two Palestinian workers were also killed in the exchange.

Several hours earlier, Palestinian gunmen armed with grenades and assault rifles entered a house in a West Bank Jewish settlement, killing three children and their mother, as well as a security guard. An Israeli Defense Force paramilitary then stormed the house, killing one of the Palestinian gunmen.

Amid the heightened violence, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened his Security Cabinet Friday to discuss how to proceed.

In keeping with Wednesday’s decision to gradually reoccupy Palestinian territories until violence abates, the Israeli military has already re-entered the towns of Jenin, Nablus, Qalqiliya, Bethlehem and Tulkarem this week, widening their new campaign code-named “Determined Path.” They have not entered Ramallah, where Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s compound is located.

Israel’s reoccupation decision is causing dissent among Ariel Sharon’s Likud Party members. Both Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres expressed outrage, saying they had not agreed to such action.

Also today, an Israeli interviewer quoted Palestinian President Yasser Arafat as saying he is now prepared to accept former President Bill Clinton’s peace plan, which was put forward 18 months ago, before Clinton left office. The plan would set up a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, but would not give Palestinian refugees the right to return to their old homes in Israel, an issue that previously prompted Arafat to reject the proposal.