An Israeli soldier and a Palestinian linked to a suicide bombing were killed in an army raid in the West Bank on Monday, further straining an already tenuous cease-fire. Palestinian leaders condemned the army's raid as a violation of trust-building measures agreed by President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when they announced the truce at a peace summit in Egypt on February 8. The soldier and the Palestinian died in a brief firefight during a raid to arrest two fugitive Islamic Jihad members hiding in Sida village, near Tulkarm, which Israel handed to Palestinian security control in March as a peace gesture.
Palestinian residents identified the slain man as a leader of the Islamic Jihad cell that carried out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on February 25, killing five people.
He recently escaped from a Palestinian jail where he had been held in connection with that attack.
The soldier was the first Israeli killed by Palestinians since militants formally agreed in March to abide by a truce. Another soldier was wounded, the army said.
ISRAELI MINISTER SHARANSKY QUITS:
Right-wing Israeli cabinet member Natan Sharansky resigned on Monday in protest at Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's planned withdrawal from Gaza, a sign of widening internal rifts ahead of the pullout.
Underlining growing tensions on the Palestinian side too, Islamic militants dismissed an order by President Mahmoud Abbas's government to stop carrying weapons on Gaza streets.
Sharansky, whose writings on democracy have impressed US President George W. Bush, quit as diaspora affairs minister, complaining that Sharon's formula for "disengaging" unilaterally from conflict with the Palestinians could invite more violence.
"In my view, the disengagement plan is a tragic mistake that will exacerbate the conflict with the Palestinians, increase terrorism, and dim the prospects of forging a genuine peace," he said in an open resignation letter.
He later told Reuters: "I am against one-sided steps. I believe that the peace process can be successful only if there is reciprocity."
THREE GAZA BUILDINGS BULLDOZED:
Security forces in Gaza on Monday demolished three unfinished beachfront houses built illegally by senior Palestinian officers as part of a new drive by President Mahmoud Abbas to end lawlessness. Since succeeding the late Yasser Arafat in January, Abbas has been under pressure to end growing chaos in the Gaza Strip and West Bank as well as to root out corruption among top officials and security officers.
A spokesman for new Interior Minister Nasser Youssef described the building of the homes that were bulldozed as an "assault on public property".
"The violators were informed of the decision and were given notice before the order was carried out," said Tawfiq Abu Khoussa.
Illegal construction is widespread in the Gaza Strip. Last month, the office that assigns building plots shut its doors in protest at intimidation by senior commanders demanding that they be given public land.
The question of who gets land in the Gaza Strip is likely to loom large when Israel withdraws from Jewish settlement blocs this summer. Abbas has promised that there will be an orderly transfer. The new push to enforce order is also aimed at ensuring militants respect a truce with Israel that Abbas agreed in February.
House demolitions can be an emotive issue in Palestinian territories, where Israeli troops have demolished thousands of buildings, including homes, during raids to battle militants in an uprising that broke out in 2000.
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