Israeli helicopters attack Gaza factory, soldiers cut main Gaza road

Israel clears soldiers in killing of 12 Palestinians; freezes Palestinian travel KARIN LAUB Associated Press Writer JERUSALEM (AP) _ An internal army investigation on Friday

Friday, September 6th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Israel clears soldiers in killing of 12 Palestinians; freezes Palestinian travel

KARIN LAUB

Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (AP) _ An internal army investigation on Friday cleared Israeli soldiers who killed 12 Palestinians in three incidents last week, prompting angry Palestinian complaints of a whitewash. None of those killed carried firearms.

Also Friday, Israel imposed curfews on most West Bank towns and froze Palestinian travel to keep out militants during the Jewish New Year's holiday. The restrictions confined more than 630,000 Palestinians to their homes.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli helicopters attacked a metal workshop in the Gaza town of Khan Younis early Friday. Israel said the foundry was used to make weapons, a claim denied by the Palestinian owner. There were no casualties.

The strike came a day after Palestinian militants blew up an Israeli tank with a bomb and opened fire on an army patrol. Two soldiers were killed and four wounded in the attacks in Gaza.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that the situation in Gaza, where a truce had been tested, ``has only gotten worse, day by day.'' Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel would not carry out the handover of Gaza to Palestinian security, as initially planned under last month's gradual truce deal.

Just before the start of the Jewish New Year's holiday at sundown Friday, the military released the results of an investigation into the killings of 12 Palestinians by Israeli soldiers last week.

The report said that in two cases, Palestinians were moving in a suspicious manner in areas that are off-limits to civilians, and soldiers acted according to regulations when they opened fire.

In the third incident, in which two Palestinian children and two teenagers were killed in a targeted missile attack on suspected militants, one of the missiles missed the target, apparently because of a technical mishap, the statement said.

The army had investigated the deaths of four Palestinian farmers in Gaza, four laborers in a West Bank quarry and the four youngsters in the missile attack.

Military officials said the quarry workers had been masked, armed with an ax and that there was ``a possibility'' they were en route to carrying out an attack. The teens killed in the missile attack were accomplices of the wanted militiamen, the military officials said. Palestinians have insisted all 12 were civilians.

Responding to the findings, Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said it was ``shameful for Israel not to bring to justice those who kill innocent children, innocent mothers in cold blood.''

The Palestinians and human rights groups say Israel often uses excessive force against civilians. Israel says it carries out military strikes to defend its citizens against Palestinian militants, and tries to avoid civilian casualties.

Since the outbreak of fighting two years ago, 1,850 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 610 on the Israeli side.

With the start of the Jewish Near Year, Israel clamped curfews on the West Bank towns of Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarem, Jenin and Qalqilya, as well as parts of Hebron.

In Jenin, about 4,000 people defied a curfew to bury two militiamen killed by Israeli troops earlier in the day. Gunmen exchanged fire with Israeli troops for about an hour, but there were no reports of injuries.

Israeli forces also moved deeper into Gaza and cut the main road connecting the segments of the densely populated strip of coastal land, reimposing travel restrictions lifted just a few days earlier.

Troops also tightened already stringent travel bans, preventing Palestinians, even those with special permits, from moving between West Bank towns.