Israeli army kills 4 Palestinians in raid on Ramallah; Factional violence in Gaza escalates,
While discussions were taking place in Egypt, Israel launched a military assault on Ramallah, killing four Palestiians and wounding 25.
Charlie Gibson covered the factional “tension” in Gaza where one Palestiian was killed but completely ignored the Israeli attack on Ramallah.
AP
Egypt’s Mubarak condemns Israeli raid
“Israel’s security cannot be achieved through military force but by serious endeavors toward peace,” Egypt’s state-run MENA news agency quoted Mubarak as telling Olmert during their meeting in this Red Sea resort.
Olmert knows very well that Mubarak is not actually going to do anything. What would he do? What will anyone do?
CNN International covered both: Israeli attack on Ramallah and escalation of factional violence in Gaza.
Elize Labat reports that the “timing could not have been worse, troops rolled in just as Israel’s prime minister began a summit in Egypt with president Mubarak”
What was this? An accident?
Covered factional violence, no mention of Israeli attack
Al Arabiya via Mosaic on LINK TV
Full report on the attack on Ramallah
“At a time when Palestinians are themselves in conflict with each other, they are also being killed by Israeli gunfire. Whether killed or martyred the end result is the same.â€
January 6th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
I don’t think Olmert knew about the attack in Ramallah in advance. The IDF and Shin Bet did not tell Defence Minister Pertetz either: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3348685,00.html
Such a large operation — including two Apaches, sending bulldozers and armor into the center of Ramallah in the middle of the day — it seems difficult to believe it was just a routine arrest that got out of hand, thus not requriring approval from cvilian higher-ups. Maybe the security establishment was trying to tie Olmert’s hands while he was in Egypt — it has ignored his promise to Abbas to remove roadblocks, making his word seem worthless:
http://imeu.net/news/article004087.shtml
“Mohammad Shahrour lives near the Yitzhar Checkpoint. He told PNN that Israeli forces arrived at dawn Saturday and erected the barrier to the astonishment of the local population that had taken the Israeli Prime Minister at his word.”