RAMALLAH, West Bank, 6 April 2007 — The Israeli Occupation Forces escalated yesterday their military operation and hostilities against Palestinians in several cities in the West Bank. They raided the Jenin refugee camp, north of West Bank with more than 20 military vehicles and clashed with Palestinian fighters, but no casualties were reported on either side.
After withdrawing from the camp, the Israeli forces later returned and raided the camp again. The Palestinian citizens then confronted the invading forces with stones and empty bottles; the Israeli soldiers retaliated with tear gas bombs and live ammunition.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, claimed yesterday their responsibility for detonating the explosive device and shooting at the Israeli jeep. In a telephone call with Arab News, the commander of the Brigades in the West Bank, Zakaria Az-Zubeidi, said that “the brigades’ fighters planted a roadside bomb in the Al-Hisan area of the camp.” He said that they detonated it when an Israeli patrol passed next to it. He also confirmed that the jeep was hit directly.
Zubeidi added that “the fighters shot intensively at the jeep and clashed with the Israeli soldiers.” Zubeidi said his group would not heed calls by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to halt attacks against the Israeli Army. “There will be no calm between our group and the Israeli forces even if Abu Mazen declares so,” said Zubeidi, using Abbas’ nom de guerre. “There is no room to speak about a cease-fire. We will continue to fight the occupation and to fight the Israeli soldiers as long as they enter our cities,” Zubeidi added.
He accused Israel of being uninterested in either a cease-fire or a political breakthrough: “The Palestinian resistance was created to achieve political gains for the Palestinians and not to achieve a cease-fire. Talk of a cease-fire is not serious because we don’t see a serious political process on the horizon that can secure the rights of the Palestinians.”
“Unfortunately, the Palestinian internal political situation is also unclear and is helping Israel to continue evading a real political process. The lack of unity among the Palestinians is serving Israel and this situation is leading to a lack of a real political initiative that will allow us to speak about a cease-fire. So long as the Israeli forces are entering Palestinian cities there is no chance of a cease-fire,” Zubeidi said.
