Gaza crossroads at center of debate on force

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Gaza crossroads at center of debate on force THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NETZARIM JUNCTION, Gaza Strip - This violent crossroads, scene of some of the bloodiest battles in six days of Israell-Pales- tinian clashes, is ground zero in a growing debate: How much force is too much force?

Israell military doctrine is sim. ple: When soldiers' lives are threatened, deadly force is justi- fied. But in places like Netzarim, where teen-age Palestinian stone- throwers are being felled by live bullets and machine-gun fire from helicopter gunships, the unequal matchup has Israelis on the defen- sive.

Israel argues that the presence of Palestinian gunmen among the demonstrators - even if they are only a tiny minority in the crowd leaves its soldiers with no choice but to use live ammuni- tion. "Wherever we are fired upon, we will fire back," Ephraim Sneh. the deputy defense minister, told Israel radio on Tuesday Since the unrest began last week, 56 people have died.

Two of the dead were Israell soldiers and one was a Jewish Israeli civilian. but 43 were Palestinians and the other 10 were Israell Arabs. "It's not a war We're not shoot- ing at them: they're shooting at us and we're dying." said senior • Palestinian negotiator Saeb bly shooting toward the soldiers. Erekat.

At Netzarim Junction, a high- Friends who jumped to his aid way crossroad in the scrubby flat. saw that his brains had literally been blown out, sending the lands of the central Gaza Strip a friends into a frenzy of shock, lone army outpost guards the ac cess road to a Jewish settlement rage and grief. by the same name.

Palestinian police tried to block the group from charging the Is- Symbol of oppression raeli outpost, but they snatched Like many other settlements in up rocks and furiously stoned the the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, police, quickly breaking through their lines.

Netzarim is loathed by Palestin!- ans living in nearby towns and As firing broke out, some shots refugee camps as a symbol of op appeared to come from a bullet- pocked building on the Palestini- pression and occupation. The Israell soldiers at Netzarim an side.

Smoke billowed from Junction, many of them teen-age piles of burning tires in the street. conscripts, are far outnumbered by mobs of rioters who have be- Israell helicopters circied over- head, as dozens of youths ran sieged their isolated post each through the street, one waving a day. Palestinian flag.

A veiled Pales- Given their state of hair-trigger Jumpiness, it sometimes is only a tinian woman stumbled as she matter of moments before a tried to get out of the line of fire. lower-level confrontation - stone- Demonstrators rushed to carry wounded to arriving ambulances. throwing repelled by rubber bul- One drove off so fast that a roll of lets and tear gas - turns into a full-scale battle with live ammuni- surgical tape unwound out its tion. open back doors.

On Tuesday at the junction, a chaotic scene erupted when a riot- Shooting of 12-year-old boy er on a warehouse rooftop adja- Netzarim Junction has been the cent to the army outpost was scene of some of the most struck by a missile. wrenching events in almost a Onlookers said the man - iden- week of fighting.

On Saturday, a tified as 28-year-old Fahmi Abu 12-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead and his father seriously Amounah - - was throwing stones. But the army sald he was proba. wounded as the two huddled, ter- rified, trying to find shelter from a hall of bullets.

The army acknowledged Tues sniper apparently had mistaken the child for a gunman. day Its soldiers apparently had Speaking specifically of that in- fired the fatal shots but blamed cident, but referring generally to Palestinians anew for "cynical problems faced by soldiers man. use" of children in the confronta- ning outposts under siege, a top tion with Israeli troops.

Israell commander said The boy's death, caught on cam- era, shocked viewers around the troops field of vision was often limited. world. Israel's Deputy Chief of Staff At the bunkerlike outpost at Maj. Gen. Moshe Yaalon ex- Netzarim for instance, soldiers are aiming through small slits. pressed "deep sorrow" and said a said Gen. Giora Elland.

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Cite this item

"Gaza crossroads at center of debate on force," Green Bay Press Gazette, 4 October 2000. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2000-029. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2000-029

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They could not agree on his name