September 20, 2001
For the sixth time this year, and the first time in Arabic, Yasser Arafat
announced a ceasefire in his war against Israel this week – but it is not working.
The “quiet” was slightly marred on the first day of Rosh HaShanah
(Tuesday) with the hurling of some 60 grenades at an IDF post in southern
Gaza, together with shooting there and at Netzarim. Shots were also fired in
Hevron, at the Ayosh Junction north of Ramallah, Migdal Oz, Psagot, and
elsewhere. Yesterday, firing and attacks continued in Hevron, Gaza, and
elsewhere. It was around this time – 8:50 PM Israel time, to be precise – that
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters in Washington that he had
“earlier today to both Chairman Arafat and to Prime Minister
Sharon and expressed my satisfaction that the first 24 hours of the
arrangement they made yesterday has resulted in a significant decrease in the
amount of violence in the region.”
Precisely as Powell was speaking, a patrol jeep of the Yesha community Oranit,
just northeast of Petach Tikvah, was rocked by a large Lebanon-style roadside
bomb. Both of the civilian guards in the jeep were wounded – one seriously, and
one moderately. The “ceasefire” continued when Arabs in Gaza threw dozens
of homemade grenades on IDF forces near Rafiach, and fired two mortar shells
towards Israel.
This morning, Arafat’s terrorists committed an infinitely more serious attack
when they murdered Sarit Amrani, 25, a mother of three. She and her family, of
the eastern Gush Etzion community of Nokdim, were on their way home from
Jerusalem; her husband Shai was seriously wounded in the attack, but their
three children, aged 4 and younger, were not hurt as they lay sleeping in the
back seat.
The shots were fired from a passing car that then escaped towards the
PA-controlled town of Beit Sahour, south of Bethlehem. A group associated
with Fatah, Arafat’s original terrorist organization, took credit for the murder.
Sarit’s funeral set off to Jerusalem this afternoon from Kiryat Arba, where she
and her husband grew up.
The Amranis’ neighbor Yossi Heiman happened on the scene minutes after the
murder. He told Arutz-7:
“I was driving along from Nokdim and I noticed something strange when
I saw the Arab children who usually walk to school there scattering in different
directions. Very shortly afterwards, I came upon my neighbors’ car in the
middle of the road, with Shai lying outside. I went up to him, but he directed
us, with a weak whisper, to his wife whom he said was in worse condition. In
the meanwhile, other people had joined, including army medics, and we went to
her and tried to resuscitate her, but unfortunately we could not… Sarit was
much loved by everyone in our community for her very fine and quiet nature…”
This afternoon, five Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded during an Arab attack
on an IDF position near the greenhouses of Kfar Darom, just north of Gush
Katif. The terrorists shot and threw grenades from a passing car, and IDF return
fire killed one of the attackers. Just south of there, Arabs threw seven grenades
in two separate incidents at an IDF post on the Israeli-Egyptian border.
PA senior official Marwan Bargouti of Ramallah summed up the situation when
he said today that despite Arafat’s call for a ceasefire, there would be none
until Israel withdraws to the pre-1967 lines.
Another senior Fatah figure, Amin Makbul, explained that the ceasefire
ordered by Arafat was merely a political maneuver to offset the worldwide
impression of the Palestinians in light of the attacks in the U.S. and the public
expression of Palestinian joy. Makbul made the remarks at a gathering in
A-Najah University in Shechem, and they were published in the official PA
newspaper, Al Hayat al-Jadida:
“This declaration is nothing more than a tactical initiative
and a political maneuver on the part of the Authority, so that the
Palestinians won’t be perceived as hostile towards the peace process.”
