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Israeli settler kills 4 aboard bus in Arab town
04 Aug 2005 20:47:33 GMT
Source: Reuters
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An Israeli policeman surveys a bus after a shooting attack in the town of Shfaram August 4, 2005. A soldier from a Jewish settlement shot dead four people on a bus in an Israeli Arab town on Thursday in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called an attack by a "bloodthirsty terrorist" ahead of a Gaza pullout. The teenage attacker, wearing uniform and the skullcap of a religious Jew, was beaten to death by residents of the town of Shfaram, who stormed the bus and smashed the windows. ISRAEL OUT
REUTERS/STRINGER/ISRAEL
An Israeli policeman surveys a bus after a shooting attack in the town of Shfaram August 4, 2005. A soldier from a Jewish settlement shot dead four people on a bus in an Israeli Arab town on Thursday in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called an attack by a "bloodthirsty terrorist" ahead of a Gaza pullout. The teenage attacker, wearing uniform and the skullcap of a religious Jew, was beaten to death by residents of the town of Shfaram, who stormed the bus and smashed the windows. ISRAEL OUT
REUTERS/STRINGER/ISRAEL
An Israeli policeman surveys a bus after a shooting attack in the town of Shfaram August 4, 2005. A soldier from a Jewish settlement shot dead four people on a bus in an Israeli Arab town on Thursday in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called an attack by a "bloodthirsty terrorist" ahead of a Gaza pullout. The teenage attacker, wearing uniform and the skullcap of a religious Jew, was beaten to death by residents of the town of Shfaram, who stormed the bus and smashed the windows.
REUTERS/STR
A crowd of Israeli Arabs surrounds a bus, following a shooting in the town of Shfaram August 4, 2005. An Israeli in military uniform shot dead three people aboard a bus in an Arab town in the northern Galilee region on Thursday and wounded four others before being set on by passengers, police said. Israeli media reported that the gunman was a settler from the West Bank who had left his unit after refusing to take part in Israel's planned withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip, which starts in two weeks. ISRAEL OUT
REUTERS/STRINGER/ISRAEL
(Adds details on attacker, police, Abbas comments) By Yuval Afriat SHFARAM, Israel, Aug 4 (Reuters) - A soldier from a Jewish settlement shot dead four people on a bus in an Israeli Arab town on Thursday in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called an attack by a "bloodthirsty terrorist" ahead of a Gaza pullout. The teenage attacker, wearing a military uniform and the skullcap of a religious Jew, was killed by residents of the town of Shfaram, who stormed the bus and smashed the windows after the shootings. Security agencies had warned that Jewish militants against the evacuation of Gaza settlements, due to start in two weeks, could attack Palestinians to stoke conflict and wreck a pullout they see as rejecting a biblical birthright. In addition to the four dead, at least 22 people, all but seven of them Arabs, were hurt in the shooting and the ensuing fracas. Hamas threatened reprisals for the attack, the deadliest by a Jewish radical since 29 Palestinians were killed in 1994. Sharon called it "a sinful act by a bloodthirsty terrorist." "This terror incident is a deliberate attempt to harm the relations between the citizens of Israel. Terror between civilians is the most dangerous thing for the future of Israel and its democratic stability," his office said in a statement. The army said 19-year-old Eden Nathan Zaada had "deserted and was of a problematic background". His father, Yitzhak, told the Israeli news Web site Ynet that he had left his home in the Israeli city of Rishon Letzion in favour of the West Bank settlement of Tapuach after he did not report back to his military duty two months ago. He had been a staunch opponent of Israel's planned Gaza pullout and left a note at his base that condemned the plan, the Web site said. The government has accused some ultranationalists of trying to incite violence ahead of the plan to remove 9,000 settlers from Gaza and a corner of the West Bank, the first time Israel will uproot settlements from land Palestinians want for a state. Mainstream settler leaders, who have vowed peaceful resistance, condemned the attack. POLICE RUSH TO QUELL TROUBLE Thousands of Israeli police were called to the north after alerts of potential riots, a spokesman said. Forces shot dead 13 Israeli Arabs in October 2000 when they tried to quell a rally in support of a Palestinian uprising that had grown violent. Some of those who headed towards Shfaram had been stationed outside Gaza to try to prevent marchers from infiltrating settlements to disrupt the pullout. Israeli Arab deputy Azmi Bishara said: "We are afraid that this is an organised act of discrimination and racism." Arabs make up about one fifth of Israel's population. In the worst attack by a settler on Arabs, in 1994, Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Muslim worshippers in the West Bank city of Hebron. He hoped to derail interim peace accords with the Palestinians. Sharon says the Gaza withdrawal plan aims at "disengaging" from conflict with the Palestinians. Opponents say it gives up a biblical claim to the land captured in the 1967 war and rewards militants behind attacks in the uprising since 2000. Polls show most Israelis back Sharon's plan. Palestinians welcome the pullout, touted by the United States as a possible step to peacemaking, but fear it is a ruse for Israel to strengthen its hold on West Bank settlements -- where plans for new building were revealed on Thursday. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the shooting. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the attack a dangerous development and hoped it would not affect the pullout. Hamas Islamic militants, currently following a six-month old truce in a campaign of shootings and bombings, said it would not "stand handcuffed before the new Israeli crime" though it did not pledge specific retaliation. Sharon has said Israel must part with Gaza, where 8,500 settlers live sealed off from 1.4 million Palestinians, for the Jewish state's own security and because it has no chance of keeping it in any future peace deal. But his top aide Dov Weisglass said on Thursday said Israel could eventually expect that at least 180,000 of the current 240,000 settlers would be able to stay in the West Bank with U.S. approval. Some 2.4 million Palestinians live there. The World Court has determined that settlements on occupied land are illegal. Israel disputes this.
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