Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Reuters

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 13 February 2004 — Israel said yesterday it would not attend a World Court hearing on whether it should tear down a barrier taking in Jewish settlements on occupied West Bank territory that Palestinians want for a state.

Israeli officials say the barrier being erected inside the West Bank is meant to keep out suicide bombers and has thwarted dozens of attacks. Palestinians call it a bid to annex land they need for a viable state since it snakes deep into the West Bank.

The stalemate underlined the paralysis in Middle East peacemaking and came a day after Israel killed 15 Palestinians in a major army assault into the Gaza Strip, triggering vows of largescale suicide attacks by Palestinian fighters.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office, announcing the boycott, said special legal advisers feared the World Court session would lend credence to a case that Israel sees as politically motivated and beyond the tribunal’s jurisdiction.

Israel would make do with an affidavit it filed with the court last month outlining these misgivings, the office said.

A World Court spokeswoman said hearings would go ahead as planned.

Any ruling by the tribunal, based in The Hague, would be non-binding, but Israel is concerned a finding against it would be so influential that it might spawn UN Security Council action against it.

The World Court hearing, due to begin on Feb. 23, was scheduled at the request of the UN General Assembly.

“I hope this Israeli decision will not affect the court’s endeavor to carry out its obligation,” Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan Al-Khatib said.

Wednesday’s Gaza violence damaged efforts to arrange an Israeli-Palestinian summit in the hope of reviving a US-backed peace plan and came amid signs of Israeli army concern about Sharon’s plan to remove settlers from Gaza.

“The Israeli enemy knows it has a losing case,” Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, founder of the Hamas militant group, told reporters.

Hamas’ armed wing, the Izzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, urged its cells in all West Bank and Gaza cities and refugee camps to carry out “major martyrdom operations” as retribution for Israel’s most lethal assault into Gaza since 2002.

“All options are open to hit the enemy everywhere in Palestine,” it said in a statement.

Palestinian fighters seek Israel’s destruction while the mainstream Palestinian Authority backs co-existence in a state in the West Bank and Gaza — lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qorie condemned the Gaza assault as “a crime” and said it would hurt dialogue to set up a meeting with Sharon that Washington deems critical to saving the road map from oblivion.

Israel defended the incursion as a strike against fighters who frequently fire rockets and mortars at settlements and target their corridor roads into and out of Gaza.

Israel went on high alert for possible suicide attacks after the Gaza assault, with increased police patrols and checkpoints. But military raids went on regardless of the Palestinian threats.

Troops shot dead a wanted Hamas man in a West Bank village near Ramallah yesterday when he tried to flee arrest, an army spokesman said. Neighbors said the man was not armed.

Israeli forces also entered Balata refugee camp in Nablus and fighting erupted, wounding two residents, medics said. Two fighters were detained before the army pulled out, residents and a military spokeswoman said.

Soldier Faces Manslaughter Charge

An Israeli soldier who shot and fatally wounded a British pro-Palestinian activist last year will be tried for manslaughter, Israel Radio reported yesterday.

The soldier had previously faced charges of grievous bodily harm after shooting Tom Hurndall in April last year as the Briton tried to push two Palestinian girls out the line of fire of an Israeli Army watch tower near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Hurndall was declared brain dead at the hospital and was brought to Britain but never regained consciousness. He died on Jan. 14.