Israeli raid kills five Palestinians in Gaza

First Published: 2010-12-19

Palestinian negotiator says peace process in 'deep coma' as negotiation process loses credibility.

Middle East Online

The strike was one of the most deadly since Israel's 22-day war GAZA CITY - Five Palestinian militants were killed as Israeli warplanes struck the Gaza Strip late on Saturday, Israel's military and Palestinian sources said. Warplanes hit central Gaza to take out a squad of militants about to fire rockets at Israel, the military said. The strike was one of the most deadly since Israel's 22-day war against Gaza, dubbed Operation Cast Lead, which began at the end of December 2008 and cost the lives of 1,400 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers. Witnesses contacted by AFP said armed men preparing an attack on Israel were killed in the raid, while medics gave a death toll of five "martyrs". The raid targeted Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, they said. Security services of the Hamas Islamist movement which rules the Gaza Strip confirmed that the five Palestinians, all aged around 20, died in an Israeli air raid and were to be buried on Sunday. The witnesses said the dead militants, former members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad or the Committees of Popular Resistance, belonged to one of the radical Salafist groups in Gaza that have recently stepped up attacks against Israel. The Israeli army said in a statement that a warplane had "identified and hit a team of terrorist agents preparing to launch rockets at Israeli territory from the central Gaza Strip." Israel regularly hits sites in the Gaza Strip from which rockets are fired across the border into Israel. Since Operation Cast Lead the number of rocket attacks has dropped considerably, but the Israeli army has said more than 200 rockets or shells, mostly home-made, have been fired since the start of 2010. Palestinian negotiator says peace process in 'deep coma' A Palestinian negotiator late Saturday said the peace process with Israel was in a "deep coma" and that US proposals for resuming talks were "totally useless". "I don't think we are to resume the negotiations soon," Nabil Shaath told journalists at Beit Sahur, near Bethlehem in the West Bank. "The peace process is in a deep coma.... I don't think anyone wants to continue this negotiation," he said. "There is no more credibility to this negotiation process. This is an exercise in futility, ridiculous...," he added. After Washington failed to obtain a new Israeli freeze on building in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as demanded by the Palestinians, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed indirect talks on the basic issues. But the Palestinians have told the Obama administration that they refuse to resume negotiations with Israel without a halt to settlement building. "The negotiating process is totally useless without terms of reference," said Shaath. Faced with the impasse in peace talks, the Palestinians have begun to explore other alternatives including unilaterally declaring a state or asking for UN recognition of their independence. Bolivia on Friday joined Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay in recognising Palestine as "an independent and sovereign state" within the borders preceding Israel's 1967 occupation. Israel opposes the steps by the South American governments, saying they go against an Israeli-Palestinian agreement that a Palestinian state be recognised only with Israeli approval. On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives approved a measure condemning unilateral measures to declare or recognise a Palestinian state, and backing a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians relaunched on September 2 in Washington have been suspended since September 26 when an Israeli moratorium on settlement building expired.