(15 Feb 2001) Hebrew/Arabic/Eng/Nat
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has thanked U-S President George W Bush for his concern about the escalating violence in the Middle East, while placing the blame directly on Israel.
Returning to Gaza from a tour of the Middle East, Arafat and chief Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath again accused Israel of using banned weapons against the Palestinian people.
Shaath says they now have evidence that the Israelis have used a new, stronger type of tear gas, which causes skin rashes and bizarre behaviour.
The Palestinians say the so-called "black gas" was used to quell recent unrest in Khan Nunes and Beit Jala.
Shaath told the media the evidence will be sent to international centres for testing and has called for worldwide condemnation of the incident.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister-elect, Ariel Sharon, visited a shelter for abused women in Tel Aviv on Thursday.
Speaking before his tour of the shelter, Sharon spoke of the deaths of Israeli soldiers who were killed on Wednesday when a Palestinian drove into a bus stop crowded with Israeli soldiers and civilians during morning rush hour.
Eight people were killed and 20 injured in the deadliest attack by Palestinian militants in nearly four years.
Later on Thursday, the new Israeli P-M met with the E-U special envoy Miguel Moratenes in Tel Aviv.
Before the meeting he said peace with the Palestinians could not be reached until Israel itself had unity.
SOUNDBITE: (Hebrew)
"Yesterday was a very difficult day. Especially shocking was those girls, the soldiers that died. It's a horrible thing, of course there were boys as well, but (the death of) those girls has additional shocking elements that we all feel."
SUPERCAPTION: Ariel Sharon, Israeli Prime Minister-elect
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I believed always, and I believe now that Israel needs unity, and I've said many times that I'm going to form this unity government. And that's what I'm going to do. I think it's important. I think Israel needs unity and that will enable us to really reach security and peace."
SUPERCAPTION: Ariel Sharon, Israeli Prime Minister-elect
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Ещё видео!