OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 12 July — Israeli forces arrested a top officer in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s presidential guards yesterday in the West Bank, as army officers warned that the territory’s occupied cities were near boiling point. Israel also announced it would try Arafat’s West Bank official Marwan Barghouti, a jailed deputy of the Palestinian Parliament, in a civil court for alleged terrorism.
Meanwhile, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal left Sanaa yesterday after a brief visit during which he handed a message on Middle East peace efforts to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the official SABA news agency reported in Sanaa. The message from Crown Prince Abdullah, the regent, pertained to “bilateral ties and regional and international developments, chiefly the issue of peace in the Middle East and developments in the occupied Palestinian territories,” Prince Saud told SABA.
The visit was part of inter-Arab consultations aimed at forging a joint Arab stand on the Palestinian issue and peace in the region, the prince said, adding that he had briefed Saleh on his talks with other Arab leaders. Prince Saud’s trip to Sanaa followed a whirlwind tour of Egypt, Syria and Jordan on Wednesday during which he consulted with the leaders of the three countries ahead of key talks on the Middle East crisis.
Israeli special forces captured Col. Abdelrahim Al-Nubani, the head of Arafat’s elite Force 17 guard’s security service, in a predawn raid on a village near Ramallah, Palestinian officials said. Israel has constantly accused Force 17 members of attacking Israeli targets. Thirteen other men from various factions were also arrested in overnight operations in the northern West Bank as Israel continued to round up Palestinian activists.
The army has said it could stay in the region for months, but pressure is mounting on it to relieve the terrible conditions of the population of up to 800,000 people living under curfew and reoccupation. Two Palestinian journalists were injured by Israeli gunfire in Jenin when tanks rumbled into the northern West Bank town as residents thought the curfew had been lifted. And the governor of Bethlehem warned that the reoccupation, triggered by Palestinian bombings, was hurtling his town toward a humanitarian crisis.
“Thousands of residents have lost their jobs, hundreds of others have been arrested, and about 1,500 are without shelter after the destruction of their homes,” governor Muhammad Madani said.
The Israeli Justice Ministry said Barghouti, accused by Israel of heading the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Arafat’s Fatah group, would face a civil court rather than a military tribunal. Barghouti was arrested in Israel’s prolonged invasion of Ramallah in April.
