OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 20 July — Israel
destroyed the homes of two Palestinian bombers and detained their
relatives yesterday for possible exile, a move that sparked
Palestinian ire and threats of bloody retaliation from the Hamas.
The US criticized the Israeli move saying its renewed policy of
bulldozing homes of Palestinian fighters and expelling their
families "will not solve Israel’s security problems."
Human rights groups warned that plans by the Israeli Army to
deport the relatives of the Palestinian men could be a war crime
under the Geneva conventions.
A senior Israeli security official said his country was
examining the possibility of expelling the detainees to the Gaza
Strip from the West Bank.
"I see this as a war crime. I see this as a crime against
humanity," Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said of
the tactic, which Israel used against Palestinians in the first
uprising of 1987-93.
Hamas, which has spearheaded a campaign of bombings against
Israel, threatened to launch more attacks if the deportations are
carried out.
The Israeli Army destroyed the family homes of two wanted men,
Nasser Al-Din Assidi of Hamas and Ali Ahmad Al-Ajouri of Fatah.
Witnesses said 22 people were made homeless in the overnight
operation near the West Bank city of Nablus and that soldiers took
22 male relatives of the two Hamas members into custody.
At around midnight, Israeli troops raided Askar refugee camp
near Nablus, according to witnesses. They said the soldiers came
with a large bulldozer and dynamited the three-story home of Ali
Ajouri, a commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
"We are examining the legal possibility of expelling to
the Gaza Strip the close relatives of attackers, and await the
opinion of the government legal adviser in the coming days,"
said Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Daniel Taub, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Israel
sought ways to deny bombers a "supportive environment".
"One of the proposals under consideration...is to remove
(their) families from the environment in which they have been
operating and place them in other parts of the Palestinian
territories, specifically in the Gaza Strip," he said.
"Our answer to the Zionists will be strong and bloody, we
will send explosive messages to the Zionists everywhere we can get
to," said the Ezzedine Al-Qassem Brigade, the group’s armed
wing, in a statement to AFP in Gaza City.
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem warned the government
that expelling relatives would be illegal under international law.
"This dangerous measure is against the Geneva Convention, and
transferring Palestinian citizens is a war crime," chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
In Paris, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois
Riveasseau warned that if Israel tried to expel relatives of
Palestinians involved in recent attacks it would be violating an
article of the Geneva Conventions.
Nabil Abu Rudeina, a top aide to Yasser Arafat, also warned the
Israeli government against deporting the detained families, saying
it would lead to further explosions of violence.
The expulsion threat will likely strain fragile peace efforts,
which had received a boost after key Arab foreign ministers met
with US President George Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
In another development, an Israeli civil court yesterday
indicted the suspected founder of an offshoot of Arafat’s Fatah
group, Nasser Naji Abu Hamid.
Meanwhile, a high-level meeting between Israeli and Palestinian
officials delayed after this week’s attack on a bus in the West
Bank will now be held tonight, a Palestinian official said. (The
Independent)