Israeli tanks punch
into West Bank cities
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Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Friday, October 19, 2001
RAMALLAH Ñ Israeli tanks and troops entered several West Bank
cities controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
Tanks, armored personnel carriers and troops took positions on the
outskirts of several West Bank cities. They included Bethlehem, Nablus and
Ramallah. In most of the cases, the Israeli forces left the West Bank cities
after several hours.
The exception was in the Bethlehem area. On early Friday, Israeli forces
captured several buildings on the outskirts of the Bethlehem suburb of Bet
Jallah.
Israeli armored personnel carriers, tanks and troops laid seige to
Bethlehem and several suburbs amid heavy clashes with PA forces. The clashes
were sparked by the Israeli assassination of a commander of Arafat's Fatah
movement.
Fatah commander Atef Abayat, 30, was assassinated by Israeli commandos
on Thursday. His jeep exploded on the road between Bethlehem and Bet Sahour.
Abayat was accused of being responsible for the death of at least five
Israelis and Israeli military sources said he was planning additional
attacks.
The killing sparked new unrest in the PA. More than 1,000 Palestinians
stormed a Bethlehem prison and tried to lynch detainees charged with
collaborating with Israel.
Arafat's adviser, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said Israel also plans to
assassinate the PA chairman. "We have discovered an Israeli plan aimed at
assassinating the president himself," Abu Rudeineh said. "We call on the
United States of America and the international community to move quickly to
stop the Israeli
aggression and this Israeli plan and to pressure the Israeli government to
stop completely this dangerous attack which will bear a result on the entire
region.''
PA gunners later opened fire from the Bethlehem toward the southern
Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. The Palestinian attack prompted the Israeli
incursion into Bethlehem.
In Jericho, an Israeli was killed and two others were injured in a
Palestinian ambush.
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