Israel closes borders to avert threat of ‘horrific’ bombing

● The militant Islamic Hamas vowed to retaliate against Israel for the killing of two Hamas leaders.

Associated Press

Israel closes borders to avert threat of ‘horrific’ bombing — Portland Press Herald, 3 October 1998 — Portland Press Herald · Portland, ME · 3 October 1998

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Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM – Israel closed its borders with the Palestinian territories on Friday in an effort to prevent what Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai said were plans for an “unprecedented, horrific” attack that could set back peace talks.

The army was trying to prevent a bombing by the Islamic militant group Hamas, which could hamper Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on an Israeli troop withdrawal from the West Bank.

Although Israeli officials said the U.S.-brokered talks have brought some advances toward a deal they hope to conclude in a four-day summit in Washington in mid-October, the Palestinians remained skeptical. Hamas has vowed to carry out attacks against Israel after Israeli soldiers killed two of the group’s leaders last month.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Friday that the security forces could not be totally effective in combating terror groups. “We have to know that, during this fight, we will take some blows,” Netanyahu said. “We are working against those murderers so there will be less attacks or none at all.”

Still, Israeli and Palestinian security forces have prevented bombing attempts in recent weeks by Hamas, whose attacks since 1994 have killed dozens of Israelis.

Palestinian police caught two Hamas members with 130 pounds of explosives in the Gaza Strip a week ago and uncovered a Hamas bomb factory with almost a ton of explosives in the West Bank city of Hebron, security officials said. Another Hamas member was killed earlier this week when a bomb-laden car, apparently intended for an attack on Israelis, exploded.

While Palestinian police worked to avert attacks, the peace talks were getting nowhere, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Friday. “No substantial progress can be cited” from his two meetings this week with Netanyahu in the United States, Arafat said, according to a speech read by Palestinian International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath in Ramallah.

Arafat said he was continuing with plans to declare a Palestinian state on May 4, 1999, the date the Palestinians say the interim peace accords expire.

How this transcription was made

Date confirmed on the page (folio-verified (the folio reads “Portland Press Herald, Saturday, October 3, 1998 5A”. 3 October 1998 was a Saturday. Paper and date both match Maria’s label, and the archive’s exi).

Context added by this archive

Whole item transcribed. Terminologically uniform: by 1998 the AP wire register for West Bank and Gaza stories is “Palestinian” without exception, which makes the wobble in the feature writing elsewhere in this batch look like a feature-desk phenomenon rather than a house-style one.

Cite this clipping

"Israel closes borders to avert threat of ‘horrific’ bombing," Portland Press Herald, 3 October 1998, p. 5A. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1998-033. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1998-033