MIDDLE EAST: The latest Israeli-Palestinian security agreement looked like going the way of its failed predecessors yesterday after the Israeli army killed four Palestinians - a 50-year-old woman, her two sons, and another relative - in the Gaza Strip early yesterday, and the Palestinians then cancelled a senior ministerial meeting with Israel on security issues.
Yesterday evening two Palestinian children were killed during an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.
The four family members were killed, and another four injured, when an Israeli tank shell hit a Bedouin encampment near the isolated Jewish settlement of Netzarim, south of Gaza City. Witnesses said the shells devastated the last two homes in the encampment, with all the other structures having already been knocked down by the military to clear an open expanse around Netzarim to protect it.
"A whole family has been eliminated," said one relative in the blood-spattered reception area of Gaza City's Shifa hospital where the dead, all members of the al-Hajeen family, were carried in on stretchers.
"Israeli tanks rolled into our area, firing everywhere, and one house was hit by at least four shells," said Mr Rami Shamalakh, a neighbour of the family.
The killings come only weeks after Israel conceded that an intelligence failure led to the deaths of 13 civilians, including nine children, in an aerial strike in a densely-populated section of Gaza City. The target of the attack was the military commander of Hamas in the Strip, Salah Shehadeh, who was also killed.
The Israeli army said the tank had opened fire yesterday after soldiers spotted shadowy figures crawling toward their outpost, but Defence Minister Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer nevertheless moved swiftly to express "sorrow" over the fact that "innocent" people had been killed "by fire from the Israel Defence Forces". He said he had ordered an investigation.
But that was not enough to assuage Palestinian anger, with senior officials informing Mr Ben-Eliezer that they would not attend the meeting with him at which they were to discuss a new security arrangement whereby the Israeli military would redeploy in areas of relative quiet in exchange for a Palestinian clampdown on militants.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mr Yasser Arafat accused Israel of trying to sabotage the latest cease-fire bid: "This [the Gaza shelling\] is an unforgivable crime that is aimed to delay peace efforts," he said. The ministerial meeting between Mr Ben-Eliezer and Palestinian Interior Minister Mr Abdel Razeq Yehiyeh had originally been planned for Wednesday, but Israel called it off, citing a mortar attack on a home in a Jewish settlement in Gaza which caused extensive damage but did not inflict any injuries.
Although Israeli forces pulled out of Bethlehem 10 days ago as part of the agreement, there have been no more troop withdrawals since. Israeli officials acknowledge there has been a drop in violence but say it has nothing to do with an increased Palestinian security effort.
"Even if we have some illusion that there has been a certain improvement in the conduct of the Palestinians in the past few days, it must be remembered that this is not due to Palestinian action. It is a result of the recent determined activity of the \ army," said Israel Cabinet Minister Mr Dani Naveh. However the Palestinians have accused Israel of foot-dragging in its efforts to implement the agreement. Mr Yehiyeh recently said Israel's delays meant "a waste of time", but he has insisted that the deal is still intact.