- GAZA (Reuters) - Two Palestinian
suicide bombers blew up an explosives-laden fishing boat close to an Israeli
patrol craft on Saturday, wounding four sailors, in the first such attack
since the start of the Palestinian uprising.
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- The militant Islamic Jihad group said the two suicide
bombers, aged 19 and 21, were killed in the overnight attack on the 20-meter
Israeli patrol craft in waters near the Gaza Strip.
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- The Israeli army said four sailors were wounded, three
moderately, when the fishing boat blew up as the patrol boat, armed with
20 mm cannon and 12.7 machine guns, approached to warn it to turn back.
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- The army imposed a complete ban on Palestinian fishing
boats plying waters off the Gaza Strip coastline after the incident.
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- The attack was reminiscent of the USS Cole bombing, which
was blamed on Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. A boat loaded with explosives
rammed the U.S. destroyer off the coastline of Yemen in October 2000, killing
17 crew.
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- The bombing was the latest in a surge of violence that
has challenged U.S. efforts to seek regional calm ahead of a possible war
on Iraq.
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- Israeli radio stations, citing unnamed sources, said
an initial military inquiry into the killing of a senior U.N. relief official
in the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday found an Israeli soldier had fired
the fatal shot.
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- Iain Hook, manager of the Jenin camp rehabilitation project
run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), was hit by bullets that
tore into UNRWA's compound while Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen
exchanged fire nearby.
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- The radio stations said preliminary findings showed that
an Israeli soldier fired on Hook in the midst of the gun battle with Palestinians
when he mistook a cellular telephone held by the U.N. official to be a
hand grenade. The army said the investigation was still under way and a
spokeswoman denied any preliminary findings had been reached.
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- Israel and the United Nations have said it was unclear
who fired the shots that killed Hook, 54, during an Israeli raid to detain
a wanted militant from the Islamic Jihad group accused of being behind
a suicide bombing in October that killed 14 people.
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- But the United Nations has accused Israeli forces of
delaying an ambulance summoned to evacuate Hook. The army said a military
ambulance was sent to the Briton's aid but that when it arrived he was
already dead.
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- MILITANTS HOUSES DEMOLISHED IN BETHLEHEM
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- In Bethlehem, Israeli forces continued a sweep for suspected
militants following Thursday's Palestinian suicide bombing of a Jerusalem
bus packed with commuters and school children that killed 11 people.
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- Military commanders said the soldiers were searching
for around 30 militants from the Bethlehem area involved in carrying out
the bombing and planning more attacks against Israelis.
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- Troops demolished the homes of three militants belonging
to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group linked to Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, in Bethlehem on Saturday, Palestinian residents
said.
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- The Bethlehem-area house of the bomber behind Thursday's
bus bombing was destroyed by Israeli forces on Friday along with the house
of a wanted Islamic Jihad militant in the city.
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- Washington used to oppose Israeli incursions into West
Bank towns but signaled again on Friday that its attitude has gradually
shifted over the months toward qualified acceptance.
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- "We are...urging the Israelis, in the course of
their operations, to keep in mind the consequences of their actions, to
complete these operations as quickly as possible and to take steps to avoid
further civilian casualties," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker
told a daily briefing.
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- Reeker said progress on "realizing Palestinian aspirations,"
diplomatic code for setting up a Palestinian state, was impossible as long
as Palestinians carried out attacks like Thursday's suicide bombing of
a Jerusalem bus.
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- Arafat issued a new call on Friday for an "immediate
and complete cessation" of attacks on Israeli civilians.
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- At least 1,677 Palestinians and 662 Israelis have been
killed since the Palestinian uprising against occupation began in September
2000 after a deadlock in negotiations for a final peace treaty.
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