OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 12 April — Israel breathed defiance as US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in the Jewish state yesterday on a shaky peace mission. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said: “I’ve warned the Americans that the Israeli Army will not withdraw from Bethlehem, Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah until all the terrorists there have surrendered.”
Washington nevertheless voiced support for Sharon. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: “The president believes that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is a man of peace.”
The Israeli Army launched new raids in the West Bank before dawn but also said it pulled back from 24 villages. Palestinian officials called the partial withdrawal a publicity stunt, and tanks and troops maintained a tight grip on most of the West Bank’s most important cities.
Powell, who will meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat tomorrow, arrived in Israel after visiting Arab and European allies en route to the toughest part of his tour. He said the rulers of Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan — whose king he met yesterday — had all offered help to his mission.
These states have questioned the US commitment to halting Israeli attacks on Palestinian cities because Powell was not sent directly to Jerusalem but made stopovers on the way. They have interpreted the delay as a way of giving Sharon time to finish his offensive.
The Israeli Army said it had arrested more than 4,000 Palestinians in its 13-day West Bank offensive. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the operation could last up to three weeks.
The army said tanks and troops swept into the Palestinian-ruled towns of Bir Zeit and Dahariya and the Ein Beit Elma refugee camp, near the city of Nablus, making dozens of arrests and occupying buildings.
Witnesses said soldiers ordered students out of their dormitories at Bir Zeit University, the West Bank’s largest university and a stronghold of nationalism, and detained several students. Troops imposed a curfew and seized the town hall. Israeli security sources said soldiers also raided the northern West Bank city of Tulkarm and arrested a woman they accused of planning a bombing.
Around 700 Palestinians were detained in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, which came under complete Israeli control when the last 30 fighters gave themselves up early yesterday after tense night-long negotiations. However, troops made no move to leave the town and an adjacent refugee camp.
The Palestinian Authority called on the international community “to stop these Nazi massacres of our people”, and thousands marched in the Gaza Strip to protest the heavy death toll in Jenin.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah group met the Red Cross for talks on Hezbollah’s offer to trade an Israeli prisoner for the safety of Palestinian fighters besieged in the West Bank
Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah had earlier offered to free an Israeli soldier whom the group said it captured in 2000, in exchange for Palestinian fighters seized in the Jenin camp.
