The Israeli army is searching for nine deserters, some of them armed, in the wake of last week's rampage by a disgruntled soldier who opened fire on a crowded bus and killed four Israeli Arabs, Israel's military chief said yesterday.
The gunman in Thursday's attack had fled the army to protest Israel's upcoming withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements. Authorities fear extremist Jews could carry out similar attacks in a bid to thwart the withdrawal, set to begin next week.
"There are deserters with guns and this concerns us," Halutz told Army Radio.
He said, however, that the nine missing soldiers had left the army for various reasons, and that he did not consider them dangerous.
"I don't want to blow this out of proportion," he said.
The withdrawal will uproot 9,000 Jewish settlers from their homes. Many settlers have said they will resist the evacuation order, and the army fears some could resort to violence.
"What concerns me the most is the possibility that, God forbid, someone being evacuated or carrying out the evacuation will be harmed," Halutz said.
Halutz, a former air force commander, said he expects attacks by Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip to drop after the withdrawal, but he couldn't say if they would disappear altogether. Many Palestinian attacks have been directed at Jewish settlements, but militants also frequently fire rockets and mortar shells at towns inside Israel.
Israeli hardliners accuse Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of caving in to Palestinian violence and believe the withdrawal will encourage further attacks. Sharon says the continued presence in Gaza, where 8,500 settlers live amid 1.3 million Palestinians, is untenable and the withdrawal will reduce friction between the sides.
Some religious leaders have encouraged Israeli soldiers not to carry out the withdrawal. In the latest such call, two former chief rabbis published a letter yesterday saying that dismantling Gaza's synagogues would "defile the sanctity" of the houses of worship.
Halutz said he found such comments "bothersome."
He said about 100 soldiers have said they won't carry out their orders.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS