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AFP (with additional material by Reuters). 28 September 2002. 20,000 Palestinians flood Gaza City to mark second anniversary of intifada. GAZA CITY -- More than 20,000 Palestinians marched through Gaza City to mark the second anniversary of the intifada as Yasser Arafat urged the crowd from his besieged West Bank headquarters to press on with a third year of uprising. The Palestinian leader, who has been trapped in his battle-scarred Ramallah office for nine days, spoke to the crowd on his mobile phone, vowing that the Palestinians would not give in after two years of violence which have left more than 1,850 Palestinians and 600 Israelis dead. "I am speaking as I am under siege. But we don't care about the siege or any other conspiracy against us. We will be victorious," he said in speech relayed through loud speakers to demonstrators as they marched from the central Palestine Square to parliament. "We want to defend our holy places, both Christian and Muslim, to defend Jerusalem and every centimetre of our land. Our resolution will continue and we will be the winner, the victory will be ours," Arafat repeated. "They (the Israelis) are now trying to hurt us with all their force and weapons but I tell them, no one can break the will of the Palestinian people, and the will of the Palestinian people is Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state," he said. Among the sea of Palestinian flags held aloft by demonstrators, many also waved his trademark keffiyah -- or Palestinian headdress -- and posters of their beleaguered leader, as they chanted: "We will support our president from siege to siege." Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement issued a statement Saturday, calling on the Palestinian people to continue its uprising. "This nation knows only one language: self-defence and no surrender." Militant groups maintained a large presence in demonstrations around the Gaza Strip which merged in the main rally in Gaza City. The colours of Islamic Jihad and its larger Islamist rival Hamas were much in evidence, while the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Arafat's Fatah, promised the crowd through loudspeakers to step up its attacks against Israel. Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin was present at the demonstration and added his voice to the calls for a third year of uprising, including suicide bombings. "The Palestinians will continue the intifada against the Zionist entity in their tanks, their helicopters and their bulldozers," he told AFP. "The martyrdom operations (suicide bombings) and the mortar operations will continue and will escalate because these are the only weapons we have and this enemy understands only the language of force." For his part, senior Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed al-Hindi said the persistence of the uprising in the face of the high casualty toll gave the lie to Israeli boasts that there could be a military solution. "The intifada is proof that after two years, they cannot control the Palestinian people by force," Hindi told AFP. "The stuggle is proof the Zionist entity is trying to make false history which is not true." Ahead of the main rally in Gaza City, hundreds of youths took part in marches in towns and refugee camps across the Gaza Strip, some of which were followed by clashes with the Israeli army. Organizers tried to put a festive air on the celebrations in Palestinian areas, sending balloons tied to Palestinian flags into the air over Ramallah and a refugee camp near Bethlehem on Saturday. A model of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock mosque was mounted atop a car. The anniversary demonstrations, which began on Friday and were expected to continue into Sunday, came against a backdrop of heightened tension amid revenge calls from Hamas for a failed Israeli assassination bid against their Gaza military leader Mohammad Deif which killed two other militants. Doctors at Shifa Hospital said that Mohammed Abu Ahoueh, 19, was shot in the head and killed while throwing stones in clashes near the Nitsrim settlement of Israelis in the Gaza Strip. Two more Palestinians were injured in the same incident, while similar clashes wounded six youths near Beit Lahia and one in Khan Yunis, Palestinian medical and security sources said. In the Gaza Strip, a 25-year-old Palestinian man was killed by Israeli machine-gunfire early Saturday when he stepped out of his house in the Rafah refugee camp, his cousin said. The man was a supporter of Arafat's movement, but was not armed, relatives said. Palestinians consider that the intifada started on September 28, 2000 when then right-wing opposition leader and now Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made a provocative visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ProletarianNews http://www.utopia2000.org with photos --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
