World Tribune.com


Israeli forces raid cities, seek to preempt new suicide attacks

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Saturday, June 1, 2002

JERUSALEM Ñ Israel's military has reentered major West Bank cities to foil what officials term are plans to continue launching suicide attacks in the Jewish state.

Military sources said Israeli troops and armored vehicles entered Kalkilya and Nablus. In Nablus, troops, supported by tanks and engineering units, entered the Nablus-area refugee camp of Balata and searched for militants and weapons.

Palestinians offered light resistance, detonating bombs and firing light arms. Israeli soldiers were not reported injured in Friday's operation.

One of the Palestinians arrested was Issam Abu Bakr, the chief of Fatah forces in Nablus. Military sources said the troops planned to stay several days in Balata.

Another Israeli incursion was reported in Kalkilya, the West Bank city regarded as a launching pad for Palestinian suicide bombings in the Jewish state. The sources said a combined force of military reservices and border police searched for insurgents and weapons in Kalkilya overnight Friday.

The raid is the latest of several Israeli military operations in West Bank cities. The military has called for a large-scale operation to flush out militants and expel Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat amid an escalation of Palestinian attacks. On Friday, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian militant who tried to enter the Jewish settlement of Shavei Shomron in the northern West Bank.

But the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has turned down the military's appeal. Officials said Sharon and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer prefer pinpoint operations.

Over the weekend, CIA director George Tenet and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns are expected to arrive in the Middle East and begin talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. He will be joined by Osama El Baz, the diplomatic adviser of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Earlier, Israeli authorities arrested a Palestinian man and his Jewish wife suspected of transporting the Palestinian suicide bomber who blew himself up in Rishon LeZion earlier this month. Two people were killed and 51 were injured in the attack. The couple lived in the Dehaishe refugee camp south of Bethlehem.

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