BETHLEHEM, West Bank, 27 November 2002 — Israeli troops swept across the West Bank yesterday arresting dozens of Palestinians in reoccupied cities, after raiding the central Gaza Strip with tanks, helicopters and bulldozers. Bethlehem, which has been reoccupied by Israeli troops since Nov. 22, was declared a closed military area by the army. The decree means journalists will no longer have access to the city.
A group of reporters including an AFP reporter saw the document, which officially makes the area a closed military area and is valid until Dec. 30.
In a late night development, two Palestinians were killed when an Israeli missile hit a house in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, Palestinian security sources said.
Sabagh, 25, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martrys Brigades, a group linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, and Imad Nashati, 23, a member of Hamas’ Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, were killed when a missile hit the building they were in, the sources said.
In Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem, more than 100 soldiers carried out house-to-house searches with sniffer dogs, arresting 35 men, Palestinian security sources said.
The Hamas local political leader, Sheikh Abdel Majid Ata, was arrested in addition to three other members of the group, a Palestinian organization dealing with prisoners’ rights told AFP.
An army spokesman confirmed the arrest of nine Palestinians “either on Israel’s wanted list or wanted for questioning” in Bethlehem.
In systematic sweeps overnight, Israeli troops arrested dozens of suspected militants and their relatives in the reoccupied towns of Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus and Hebron.
Among them was an official from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah, captured in Ramallah over his suspected involvement in a Jan. 17 bombing of a ballroom in northern Israel that left seven people dead.
The Israeli Army also rolled into the town of Deir Al-Balah and the nearby refugee camp in the center of the densely-populated Gaza Strip, demolishing the house of a senior Hamas leader.
In another development, Palestinian officials said yesterday they planned to step up contacts with the Israeli peace camp in a bid to persuade Israeli voters that Palestinians are committed to peace.
“We discussed the issue of reviving and increasing dialogue with the Israeli peace camp in Monday’s leadership meeting,” Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan Al-Khatib told Reuters.
