Militants kill 7 in Mideast

Associated Press

JERUSALEM – Palestinian militants staged a series of attacks Monday, leaving seven dead as Yasser Arafat praised a tentative proposal in which the entire Arab world would make peace with Israel in exchange for a total pullout from the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.

Israeli F-16 warplanes later responded to the attacks, destroying two Palestinian security buildings in the Gaza city of Rafah, near the Egyptian border, witnesses said. Four Palestinian police were hurt, none seriously, doctors said.

Also, the Israeli air force attacked a Palestinian police structure in Ramallah in the West Bank. The Israeli military said the air strikes were a response to “murderous attacks” by Palestinians. In addition, the military blocked the main road in Gaza in three places, banning Palestinian traffic, a statement said.

In the earlier Gaza violence, two armed Palestinians tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement and soldiers opened fire on them, the military said. Palestinians said one of the gunmen was killed.

The Israeli military said Palestinians also opened fire on an Israeli vehicle near Gaza’s Kissufim crossing into Israel, and then a suicide bomber blew himself up. Israeli officials said three Israelis and the bomber were killed and four people were wounded.

The Al Aqsa Brigades, a militia linked to Arafat’s Fatah group, took responsibility for the attack on the vehicle in a phone call to The Associated Press in Gaza.

Elsewhere, police spotted a suspicious car and stopped it on the highway between Jerusalem and the West Bank’s Jordan Valley. Police commander Shahar Ayalon said the driver got out of the car, and as police “pulled out their guns, he activated the car bomb by remote control.” The attacker and a policeman were killed, and another policeman was slightly injured.

Israel again blamed Arafat for the violence. “It has now become a daily event,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry official Arie Mekel. “We certainly see an escalation planned by the Palestinian Authority and Arafat.”

Arafat has denied involvement in such attacks, and his aides have said that Israel’s retaliations against Palestinian security installations and closures of Palestinian towns make effective Palestinian action against militant groups impossible.

Meanwhile, Arafat praised an idea reportedly being considered by a key Saudi ruler, offering Israel peace with the entire Arab world in exchange for an Israeli pullout from all the territory occupied in the 1967 war, including the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, which are claimed by the Palestinians.

In The New York Times on Sunday, columnist Thomas Friedman quoted Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah as saying that he had a speech ready to deliver to the Arab summit meeting next month making the offer.

Israel has peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan and unofficial relations with some other Arab states, but most have refused to formally accept the Jewish state in the Middle East.

In a statement to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Arafat said the “important positions” presented by Abdullah “represent a clear support and push for the peace efforts” toward creation of a Palestinian state in the territories, while giving “security for the state of Israel.”

Israeli officials welcomed the concept of pan-Arab acceptance, though they rejected its conditions.