JENIN, West Bank, 8 June — The Israeli Army raided a number of West Bank towns yesterday, keeping pressure on the Palestinians a day after tanks razed part of Yasser Arafat’s compound in Ramallah.
About 20 Israeli tanks stormed back into Jenin early yesterday. Israeli forces also entered the West Bank town of Bethlehem as well as Tulkarm, where they arrested two people. They patrolled the city of Hebron to the south, residents said. Troops also invaded the towns of Qabatiya and Jaba, south of Jenin, with four helicopters opening fire and wounding three Palestinians, sources said.
“This is part of a fierce war against peace,” Arafat told reporters at his battered headquarters after talks with UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen.
In Washington, US President George W. Bush said he would make a statement about his Middle East policy after meeting Sharon, adding that there was “progress” in the latest round of international diplomacy aimed at halting 20 months of conflict. But the fresh violence kept tensions high.
Witnesses said half a dozen tanks and troop carriers rolled into Tulkarm in the northern West Bank, where soldiers searched houses and arrested Palestinians before pulling out. An army spokesman said troops arrested a woman suspected of plotting a bombing against Israelis. Soldiers fired in the air as a 30-vehicle column invaded and imposed a curfew on Jenin.
Arafat yesterday urged the international community to stop Israel’s almost daily incursions into Palestinian-ruled territory. “I am addressing this appeal to the whole world to stop this fascism, this Nazism, this dirty work against our people,” Arafat said.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, currently in Washington to hold talks with President Bush told CNN that creation of a Palestinian state was the “best guarantee” against bombings against Israelis. He called for Washington to take the lead in seeking a rapid resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a statement yesterday, Islamic Jihad’s Jerusalem Brigades hinted at more bombings if Israel targets the group in ongoing raids on West Bank towns.
Meanwhile, a narrow majority of Israelis (52 percent) supports a plan which calls for the dismantling of 40 to 50 settlements in the West Bank and all in the Gaza Strip, a poll published yesterday in the Israeli Ma’ariv daily reveals.
A similar majority (53 percent) of Israelis polled said they supported the principle of “two states for two peoples” and a Saudi peace initiative which proposes peace between Israel and the entire Arab world in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories.
