OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 8 January 2004 — The Israel Army stepped up its raids in the West Bank yesterday, killing three Palestinians and arresting 19.
Israel’s nightly sweeps through West Bank towns and villages, together with a concentrated three-week series of raids in Nablus, the largest West Bank city, have raised tensions. Palestinians charged that Israel was trying to sabotage peace efforts.
Soldiers have killed 14 Palestinians in West Bank raids in the past three weeks.
In raids yesterday, Israeli forces in Nablus killed two members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a militia loosely affiliated with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.
In Tulkarm, a town just inside the West Bank along the line with Israel, troops shot and killed a Hamas fighter during an arrest operation, the military said.
During overnight raids in the area of Nablus and the nearby town of Jenin, troops arrested 19 Palestinians, the army said.
In Gaza, soldiers fired at a suspicious figure near a Jewish settlement but apparently did not hit him. Also, troops arrested three Palestinian youths near the Israeli village of Nahal Oz, the military said.
Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo charged that Israel was trying to stir up trouble. In a statement, he charged that the raids are “crimes aimed at foiling international and regional efforts toward calming the situation down, and provoking a Palestinian reaction in order to renew the cycle of violence.”
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei has been trying unsuccessfully for weeks to broker a truce agreement that he could present to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, to put pressure on the Israelis to halt their military operations.
Egypt has joined the effort, sending envoys to the West Bank and Gaza to meet with faction heads.
Palestinian officials said Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman would be the next envoy, but no firm date had been set for his arrival, they said.
