GAZA, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Hovering Israeli army Apache helicopters early Monday morning local time blasted a goldsmith's workshop in Jabalya village north of Gaza City, Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses said.
Col. Salem Dardouna, public security chief in Jabalya, told United Press International that two helicopters fired about five rockets that hit the workshop which belongs to Palestinians in the village, adding that huge explosions were heard in the area.
Eyewitnesses said flames shot up from the building and several nearby homes were damaged as
ambulances and firemen rushed to the scene. No injuries were reported, but the attack caused severe damage.
Palestinian security sources said Israelis suspected the workshop produced mortar shells used to fire at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
The attack was the third in the last six months in which Israel has targeted workshops they accused of manufacturing mortars and bombs.
The aerial assault came despite Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's declaration Sunday on the opinion page of The New York Times that he condemns attacks by "terrorist groups" against Israeli civilians and said Palestinians are ready to end the conflict.
"No degree of oppression and no level of desperation can ever justify the killing of innocent civilians," Arafat wrote. "I condemn terrorism. I condemn the killing of innocent civilians, whether they are Israeli, American or Palestinian."
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon described Arafat's article as a public relations move, adding that the Palestinian leader must take real action to stop terror.
"You don't fight terror with words in the New York Times," Sharon's media advisor Raanan Gissin told United Press International. "That is not what will get him out of the tough spot in which he is now."
However, stepping up the diplomatic offensive further Sunday, the Palestinian Authority sent an official letter of protest to Amos Gilaad, chief of the Israeli government's highest committee of civil affairs, concerning the new security plan that Israel intends to implement for Jerusalem.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the Palestinian Authority's Minister for Civil Affairs Jamil Tariffi protested the Israeli plan to isolate the Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and Palestinian neighborhoods from Palestinians living in the territories.
"This plan would increase frustration among the Palestinian public, and is considered a unilateral action that totally contradicts the principles and spirit of peace," read the letter.
The Palestinian Authority stressed that the question of Jerusalem was to be one of the major points in final status talks. Tariffi also emphasized the importance of returning to the negotiating table to discuss all issues of the final status talks, including Jerusalem.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Arafat's high-profile declaration in the New York Times appeared as he instructed Palestinian officials and negotiators to continue contacts with Sharon and other Israeli authorities, official Palestinian sources said.
Three top Palestinian Authority officials -- but not Arafat -- secretly met Sharon last Wednesday in Jerusalem.
It was the first such meeting since Sharon took office a year ago, a senior Israeli government source said.
Arafat's absence has left some analysts speculating that Sharon is sounding senior Palestinian officials to see if the two sides can engage in meaningful talks without involving Arafat.
In an interview published in Maariv Thursday, a day after this secret meeting, Sharon said that he regretted that he had not killed Arafat 20 years ago.
On Sunday, Sharon continued in this angry vein in an interview to Channel 2 TV, said Arafat "made himself irrelevant by setting up a coalition of terror."
In contrast to Sharon's rhetoric, Arafat assured a group of Arab and Israeli peace activists Saturday that resolution would come "sooner or later," adding the Israeli visits give him the hope Israel "is a peace partner."
In his New York Times op-ed piece, Arafat stated in two places, "I condemn the attacks carried out by terrorist groups against Israeli civilians."
"These groups," he continued, "do not represent the Palestinian people or their legitimate aspirations for freedom. They are terrorist organizations and I am determined to put an end to their activities."
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Yaffa Ben-Ari, told UPI Arafat's words are nice but "they are shooting out there. As long as there is violence and terror in the field, all the nice words are worthless."
Sharon told his cabinet he initiated Wednesday's meeting with the three Palestinian leaders because he "recently noticed the Palestinians do not fully understand" Israel's demands for a cessation of violence and terror.
"I thought it best they hear it from me, directly. I also wanted to hear their positions," he said according to a participant in the cabinet session.
The Palestinians have asked for an end to targeted killings, lifting closures and sieges on their towns, cease Israeli activities in their areas, and let Arafat travel freely.
So far they agreed only to resume meetings of the security committees, sometimes in the presence of U.S. CIA representatives, Sharon said.
Sharon told Channel 2 TV only one diplomatic issue arose Wednesday: The Palestinians sought his reaction to the talks Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has been holding with Abu Ala.
"There is definitely a difference between what Shimon Peres presented and the plan I foresee," Sharon answered, seeming to weaken Peres' clout.
Peres and Abu Ala talked of a timetable for implementing their peace plan. Sharon said the Palestinians should meet "expectations" before moving on.
They should first agree on non-belligerency, "and if relations will develop so that we can move ahead, then we can discuss a permanent arrangement," the prime minister added.
Earlier in incidents on Sunday, Palestinians fired three mortar bombs at the Gush Katif settlement block in the Gaza Strip, hurled firebombs and shot at two buses in the West Bank, fired at the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Giloh, and planted charges that caused neither damage nor injuries, Israeli military and police sources said. The Israelis injured eight Palestinians, one seriously.
A Palestinian police spokesman said that at least four Palestinians, two of them police officers, were wounded by Israeli army gunfire in the southern Gaza Strip, and that one Palestinian standing near his home in Rafah was shot in the head by Israeli troops. Three other Palestinian, among them two public security officers, were wounded when Israeli troops in the Jewish settlement of Neveh Dekalim west of Khan Younis opened fire on the nearby refugee camp "for no reason," the spokesman said.
(With reporting by Joshua Brilliant in Tel Aviv.)
