Islam and New Zealand Muslim community - Israelis kill 8 Palestinians in cold blood

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 18 October â€” Eight Palestinians, including two children, were killed yesterday in Israeli tank fire in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah as US officials gave Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a "road map" aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within three years, with a Palestinian state to be declared next year.

Israelis killed the Palestinians in cold blood when their tanks blasted two houses in the Rafah with shells and heavy machine gun fire, Palestinians medical and security officials said.

Among the dead were a four-year-old girl and 12-year-old child, two young men and two elderly women, hospital director Ali Mussa, told AFP.

The injured included a young girl in critical condition and dozens of people listed as seriously hurt, he said. The Israeli tanks fired three shells at the houses and blasted them with heavy machine gun fire, witnesses said.

The Palestinian leadership, in a statement, condemned "this new massacre by Israeli tank shells against a refugee school and houses in Rafah" and called for the international community to intervene and send observers. Israeli forces also arrested 11 Palestinians in overnight raids.

Meanwhile, outlining the US plan, two Israeli dailies Yediot Aharonot and Maariv said the three-stage plan would begin with a halt to anti-Israeli attacks and the reform of the Palestinian Authority, coupled with the lifting of the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territories and an easing of the Palestiniansâ€™ living conditions.

This should be completed by June 1 next year, after which a provisional Palestinian state would be declared following elections and an international conference on the Middle East.

Yediot said this phase would be complete by June 2004, while Maariv said by the end of 2003.

The last stage would be devoted to negotiations for a final resolution of the conflict, with the involvement of Arab countries among others. The whole process should be wrapped up around the end of 2005 or beginning of 2006.

The plan is similar to the "road map" being drafted by the so-called Middle East Quartet, comprising the US, EU, United Nations and Russia.

An Israeli official said in Washington Wednesday that Sharon had been given a project which Israel wanted to study. He said US envoy William Burns would be disclosing it during an upcoming tour of the Middle East.

US President George W. Bush said Wednesday that he was sending Burns, assistant secretary of state for the Middle East, back to the region to help achieve "concrete, real, objective, measurable reforms" of the Palestinian Authority "so that there is a peaceful future for the region."

In other developments, an Israeli minister yesterday reiterated warnings that Israel would respond militarily if Lebanon pumped more than the "necessary minimum" of water from a key border spring. If the Lebanese pump more water from the Wazzani than the necessary minimum, Israel will be forced to take military action," Israeli Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh said in an interview.

In Beirut, French President Jacques Chirac said yesterday that moves toward an Arab-Israeli peace settlement should clear the way for a "complete" Syrian troop withdrawal from Lebanon.

A Palestinian security court sentenced a Hamas man,Waleed Hamdya, to death yesterday for helping Israeli intelligence track and kill five fellow members of the group between 1987 and 1995. source :arabnews