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Israeli tanks punch
into West Bank cities

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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