JENIN, West Bank, 15 August — Israel provoked more Arab and Western outrage yesterday after sending tanks into a Palestinian town in revenge for a suicide bombing, one of its boldest raids yet in almost 11 months of escalating violence.
Palestinian leaders described the in-and-out operation before dawn yesterday in the West Bank city of Jenin as a victory for the Palestinian uprising, saying the withdrawal after two hours showed Israel lacked nerve. But the lightning raid sparked further violence across the West Bank that left at least 11 people wounded, while Palestinian fighters warned Israel would pay “very dearly” if it tried another incursion.
There were no signs Israel’s get-tough policy was abating as right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hinted his troops could enter the troubled region around Bethlehem after heavy firing on the edge of area.
Israeli Army chief Shaul Mofaz said Jenin had become a “city of bombers” and that the raid was aimed at breaking the infrastructure of a town he said had become a base for shootings and suicide attacks. Tanks and bulldozers piled into the city, destroying a Palestinian police station in the deepest incursion by the Israeli Army since the beginning of the intifada in late September.
Infuriated Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat made plans to appeal to the UN Security Council to send international forces to the region to protect his people, top aide Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
The White House called the Israeli incursion “provocative.” “As we have said before, Israeli incursions into Palestinian territory are provocative and undermine efforts to create an atmosphere of calm,” National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said when asked to respond to Israel’s move into Jenin. “Immediate steps should be taken to restore an atmosphere of restraint and calm,” McCormack said.
The French Foreign Ministry said: “Everything that weakens the Palestinian Authority goes against calls that have been issued for moves that contribute to restoring security and makes dialogue, which is indispensable, more difficult.”
Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, yesterday held talks with Iranian President Muhammad Khatami by telephone on the Middle East situation and other major global issues.
Earlier, Khatami called on Muslim countries to break ties with Israel and restore the rights of the Palestinian people. “All Islamic countries and freedom-lovers should restore the rights of the innocent Palestinian nation from the butchering Zionist regime,” Khatami said during a phone conversation with his Lebanese counterpart, Emile Lahoud.
Responding to a suggestion by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Maher, slammed as “unacceptable” the idea of declaring an independent Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip following a unilateral Israeli pullout. “UN resolutions call for an Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied in 1967”, Maher told reporters, adding “these resolutions were the fundamental principles for a resolution” of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Meanwhile, the Arab League has dropped for the time being a proposal to convene an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers to discuss the worsening situation in the occupied territories, sources said yesterday.
