Tens of thousands in Israel rally for Sharon plan
Palestinians mark anniversary of Jewish state's founding
TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- On a day that Palestinians mark what they call the "catastrophe," tens of thousands of Israelis rallied Saturday evening in favor of a plan to withdraw troops and settlers from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
Supporters hoped to have 100,000 participants in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square -- the same number that rallied in January against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan.
Also Saturday, thousands of Palestinians rallied in the West Bank and Gaza, marking the anniversary of what they call the "catastrophe" -- the founding of Israel, May 15, 1948.
Palestinians placed photos of President Bush, Sharon and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on heads of dummies. A masked man held a gun to the dummy with Sharon's head.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat quoted a verse from the Quran calling on people to find the strength to "strike terror in your enemy ... if they want peace, then let's have peace."
Arafat has publicly rejected terrorist attacks, but Israeli officials have accused him of supporting such actions. U.S. officials do not communicate with Arafat, saying he has failed to act against terror or allow the Palestinian prime minister enough power to crack down on terrorism.
Palestinian marchers, waving flags, also set fire to a mock Israeli tank and a mock outpost Saturday, and some masked participants wore what appeared to be mock suicide bomb belts.
The rallies came amid a flare-up of violence in Gaza that has left 13 Israeli soldiers and 31 Palestinians dead in the past week. Israel and Palestinian officials identified many of the dead Palestinians as members of groups considered terrorist organizations by Israel and the United States, such as Hamas, Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Also Saturday, Secretary of State Colin Powell met in Jordan with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei. In that meeting and later at the World Economic Forum in Jordan, Powell called Sharon's disengagement plan a move that could help jump-start the peace process. (Full story)
Sharon suffered a setback two weeks ago when his Likud party rejected the plan by a wide margin. It is expected to be put before the Israeli Cabinet by the end of the month.
An official in Sharon's administration said the plan is not expected to be modified before it reaches the Cabinet.
Supporters, including former Prime Minister Shimon Peres -- head of the opposition Labor Party, who also spoke at Saturday's rally -- say it would help strengthen Israel and give the country more defensible borders. Opponents say it would reward terrorism.
Palestinians have said they are dissatisfied whether the plan passes or not, insisting any steps should be made strictly within the context of the so-called "road map" to peace, backed by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. The road map outlines a series of steps leading to Palestinian statehood and peace with Israel by 2005.
Week of violence
Violence continued into early Sunday with Israeli airstrikes on targets in Gaza.
Israeli Apache helicopters fired four missiles toward two targets in Gaza City early Sunday, CNN confirmed. Three children and one adult were injured in the attacks, Palestinian medical sources told CNN.
In the first attack, just after midnight, two missiles hit a branch office of Arafat's Fatah movement, according to CNN producer Talal Aburahma, who witnessed the attack. A few minutes later, two missiles slammed into a building housing a Hamas newspaper known as The Message, Aburahma said.
On Saturday, an Israeli helicopter fired a missile into the home of an Islamic Jihad leader in Rafah, hours after targeting the office of another leader of the Palestinian militant group in Gaza City, according to Palestinian witnesses in both cities.
Witnesses said Mohammed Sheik Khalil -- leader of the militant wing of Islamic Jihad in Gaza -- was not home at the time, but the attack wounded three of his neighbors.
The Israel Defense Forces said it "targeted and destroyed" an Islamic Jihad explosives lab in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Saturday morning in an air force attack. In addition to manufacturing weapons used in terror attacks, the IDF said, the lab "served as a key center for planning terrorist activities."
Farther north Saturday, an Israeli Apache helicopter targeted the office of Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed al-Hindi in Gaza City, firing at least six missiles, witnesses said.
Officials of the militant group say al-Hindi was not harmed. They did not say whether he was in the building at the time of the attack.
Nearby, Israeli forces mounted a targeted strike on El-Anzar, Islamic Jihad's social services agency, the IDF said. The building sustained heavy damage.
Hospital sources say at least 15 people were wounded, but there was no information on their condition.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel. It has carried out terror attacks on Israeli civilians, as well as strikes on military targets.
In a statement, the IDF said the structures were targeted because they are "used as main focal points for terrorist activity." It said the El-Anzar association is a "guise for locating, recruiting and activating terrorist factors."
CNN's Talal Aburahman and Elise Labott contributed to this report.
