OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 14 November 2002 — Hundreds of Israeli soldiers backed by tanks and helicopter gunships stormed back into the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday in the biggest operation in the city since the controversial reoccupation in April. Local Palestinians were seen being rounded up by the soldiers.
The men were ordered to stand in a line facing a wall and the women were ordered to sit on the ground. The Israeli Army said some 30 Palestinians had been arrested.
The incursion came a day after an Israeli raid on Tulkarm refugee camp. More than 150 armored vehicles backed by helicopter gunships entered Nablus at 4:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) from the east and west, moving toward the center of town under covering fire without meeting any serious resistance, Palestinian sources said.
The Israeli authorities said the incursion was a response to the murder of five Israelis, including two children and their mother, in a kibbutz on Sunday by a suspected Palestinian gunman. The Israeli Army said it believes the order for the killings came from militants in Nablus.
Soldiers were firing in the air as they advanced. Most of the operation appeared to be centered on the Casbah area of the Old City, a maze of narrow lanes which was sealed off by the soldiers.
Explosions could be heard coming from the area, witnesses said, apparently the sound of the soldiers blowing open doors, and there were sporadic exchanges of gunfire, but there were no reports of casualties by last evening.
In another raid yesterday, Israeli helicopter gunships hit Gaza City, targeting a metal workshop which Israel says was used for manufacturing weapons. Tuesday’s raid on Tulkarm was the first time the new extreme right-wing caretaker government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had to decide on military action since the Labour Party, seen as a moderating influence, walked out of a broad based coalition on Oct. 30.
Meanwhile, the hawkish Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped up pressure for Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s expulsion.
Netanyahu told an extreme right-wing Likud party convention in Tel Aviv late Tuesday that he would build his election platform on expelling the Palestinian leader.
He repeated his demand in a security Cabinet meeting yesterday, public radio said.
Arafat, still effectively trapped in his Ramallah offices after almost a year of being isolated by Sharon, scoffed at the threat. "He must know I am Yasser Arafat, this is my land, the land of my great, great-great-great-grandfather," he told reporters. (The Independent)
