Israeli Hardline Policy Unable to Subdue Palestinians:Speaker

The hardline policy pursued by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will by no means subdue the Palestinians who are against Israeli occupation, a senior Palestinian official said Thursday.

In an interview with the Cairo-based Voice of the Arabs, Ahmed Qurei, speaker of Palestine Legislative Council, said: "The Israeli prime minister will not be able to break the Palestinian people's will to achieve their national objectives."

He condemned Israeli army's air strikes against Gaza and the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Hebron Wednesday evening, during which two Palestinians were killed and more than 60 others injured.

The strikes came apparently in retaliation for a wave of anti- Israeli bombing attacks in two days, which killed several Israelis and wounded more than 40 others.

The air raids were launched shortly after the closing of an Arab summit in the Jordanian capital Amman, where Arab leaders pledged support for the Palestinian intifada (uprising) against Israel.

Qurei said that the Israeli air strikes reflected the state of confusion of the Israeli leadership, adding that they will gain nothing from this escalation of violence against Palestinians.

The Palestinian-Israeli violent clashes, which broke out last September, have so far left more than 430 people dead, most of them Palestinians, and thousands of others injured.






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