Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News

JERUSALEM, 11 April 2004 — Israeli troops shot dead an 11-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza yesterday as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s efforts to win support for his plan to disengage from the Palestinians in Washington next week was complicated by the bloodshed in Iraq. Iman Tolba sustained a fatal bullet wound to the head in the southern town of Khan Yunis and died shortly after arriving in hospital, medics said.

An anti-tank rocket had earlier exploded on the outskirts of the nearby Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim, Palestinian security sources said.

It was unclear if the incidents were related and the army had no immediate response to the shooting.

Sharon was to head to Washington late tomorrow in a bid to secure a crucial endorsement from US President George W. Bush for his “disengagement” plan, which has been fiercely criticized by members of his right-wing Likud party.

US support is essential if the plan is to survive a party vote on the issue later this month. The Bush-Sharon summit is scheduled for Wednesday, but Sharon’s chief of staff Dov Weisglass, political adviser Shalom Turjeman and national security adviser Giora Eiland flew to Washington over the weekend in order to put the final touches to the crunch preparations, public radio said.

Under Sharon’s plan, Israel would pull out of the Gaza Strip and dismantle four settlements in the northern West Bank.

Troops would also redeploy along the route of Israel’s West Bank wall which often plunges deep into Palestinian territory to incorporate Jewish settlements on the Israeli side. Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath is to visit the United States a week after Sharon’s White House meeting, Washington confirmed Friday.

Meanwhile, Iraqi resistance to the US presence in the embattled country continued to draw support in the Palestinian territories. Hamas appealed to the Arab and Islamic world and the international community to act “to stop the terrorist massacres” of Iraqis by the US-led force.

“We condemn the savage crimes perpetrated by the US occupation forces and their allies against the Iraqi people in various towns and notably in Fallujah, where a real humanitarian catastrophe has taken place,” the group said in a statement here.

In the northern West Bank, around 500 Palestinians gathered in Jenin to show solidarity with the Iraqis, particularly those in Fallujah, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

“The struggle in Fallujah is like the struggle in Jenin camp,” shouted the demonstrators, referring to a battle between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops in April 2002 which left 53 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers dead and the center of the camp devastated.

Further south, about the same number took to the streets of Hebron outside the offices of the Red Cross, waving Palestinian and Iraqi flags and pictures of Saddam Hussein.