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11/07/2005:

"The tragic continuum"

The Israeli occupation army has re-imposed draconian restrictions on Palestinian civilians across the West Bank. The new measures, prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention, amount to virtually caging millions of Palestinians inside their respective towns, villages and refugee camps and follow an earlier ban on Palestinian traffic on intercity roads in the West Bank. If permitted to continue, the strangulation of Palestinian population centres, which coincides with the Eid Al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, is likely to lead to a resumption of violence on a very large scale.

This week, Palestinian resistance factions, mainly under pressure from Egypt, re-committed themselves to the fragile calm on condition of Israeli reciprocity. Israel responded by carrying out more assassinations and air strikes against suspected resistance activists and civilian infrastructure such as roads and buildings that the Israeli army claimed were being used by "terrorists". The frailty and mendacity of Israeli justifications suggest that the real goal is simply to wreak maximum damage and collective punishment on Palestinians "for the sake of it", in the words of one Palestinian Authority official.
weekly.ahram.org.eg