Israeli troops in pursuit of a suicide bomber blockaded a West Bank village Tuesday. The soldiers surrounded the village of Beit Furik on suspicion that a Palestinian from the village was trying to reach Israel to carry out a suicide bombing, AP reported.
Palestinian security officials said three jeeps entered the village and soldiers enforced a curfew, but made no arrests and left after several hours.
Security forces in northern Israel have increased their activity to levels seen before Israel launched its military offensive on March 29, said an official in the paramilitary border police who spoke on condition of anonymity. Israel’s intelligence services were receiving the same number of warnings of attacks as they had received before Israel launched its West Bank offensive, the official said.
Israeli commentators warned that Palestinian attacks on Israelis were likely to escalate in the absence of signs of progress toward a cease-fire or peace talks.
In Gaza Strip, a bomb exploded in the path of an Israeli convoy but caused no injuries or damage, the Israeli army said.
A short time later, Israeli tanks and bulldozers raided Palestinian territory near the scene of the attack and destroyed a Palestinian security post and a local house, Palestinian security sources told AFP.
The bomb attack occurred on a road between the Jewish settlement of Netzarim and the Karni border crossing point between Gaza and Israeli territory, the army said in a statement.
The attack was jointly claimed by Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). "Our men carried out this operation by setting off an explosive charge around 6:00 am (O300 GMT) against a military convoy on the Netzarim-Karni road and then opened fire with automatic weapons, wounding several Israeli soldiers," they said in a statement.
About an hour later, eight Israeli tanks and two bulldozers tore down a shack belonging to the Palestinian police and ordered a family out of a neighboring house at gunpoint before destroying it, the Palestinan sources said.
The army fired machineguns as they entered about a kilometer into the area and tore up farmland, although there were no injuries, they said.
In Washington, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director George Tenet would meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders "relatively soon" to search for ways to end violence in the region, said. "There's no fixed date yet," Rice told reporters. "But I think he'll either go to the region or he'll meet them someplace relatively soon."
She said Tenet was "committed to pulling together the parties, site to be determined, when it looks like he can make progress on the restructuring of the Palestinian security forces." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
