Israeli forces rolled back into the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Tuesday hours after Secretary of State Colin Powell said he would hold talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a bid to secure a cease-fire.
Witnesses in Tulkarem said tanks swept in from several directions in the early hours in what an Israeli military source said was "a limited operation to arrest Palestinian militants." There were no immediate reports of fighting. Tulkarem was one of two towns evacuated by Israeli forces April 9. Within hours, however, the Israeli forces had withdrawn from Tulkarem.
At least seven Palestinians, most of them members of the Palestinian security forces, were injured in Tulkarem. The Israeli forces also arrested nine Palestinians before their withdrawal.
"The occupation forces bombed and stormed houses, arrested people and uprooted trees," Governor of Tulkarem Izzidin Al Sharif said. He affirmed that the city suffers from a shortage in water and food after the occupation forces broke water pipes connecting the city.
Also, the Israeli military said its forces were searching for suspects and weapons in the Askar refugee camp next to Nablus as well as the West Bank villages of Hirbet Beit Hassan, Fara, Luban a Sharkiyeh, A-Ram and Anata.
On Tuesday noon, Palestinians in eastern Jerusalem said that Israeli forces took up positions in the Abu Dis, Azariya, and Ras Al Amud villages.
A curfew has been placed on the areas and Israeli soldiers were making arrests, eyewitnesses said.
The Israeli army resumed its psychological warfare against 200 Palestinians holed up in the Church of the Nativity, broadcasting ear-splitting noise and repeated calls to surrender.
Sounds of drilling, animal roars and strident shouts were played over a giant loudspeaker facing the church which marks Jesus' birthplace. Earlier, pre-recorded messages calling for the besieged Palestinians to give up were played for half an hour.
According to AFP, the noise pollution started at midnight (2100 GMT), an hour earlier than the night before. The operation, in its third night, is part of the "psy-war" against 200 Palestinian fighters blocked inside the church along with Bethlehem governor Mohammed Al Madani, other civilians and some clergy.
On Monday night, Israeli troops arrested Jamal Tawil, head of the Hamas military wing in Ramallah. Tawil was arrested in an apartment hideout in Beitounia, west of Ramallah. Also arrested was Hamas activist Faiz Abu-Varda, who is suspected by the Israeli side of involvement in many attacks.
Just hours earlier, Marwan Barghouti, the West Bank Fatah leader, was captured by an Israeli elite unit in Ramallah, not far from his apartment. Barghouti is the highest ranking Palestinian arrested thus far.
Palestinian chief negotiator Sa'eb Erekat last night called on Israel to free Barghouti, charging that the arrest created a "serious obstacle" to the effort to restore calm, and that the PA regards Israel as responsible for Barghouti's well being.
Israel’s former justice minister Yossi Beilin called Barghouti's arrest "one achievement too many," noting that while Barghouti is under arrest, "leaders of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad go free." He warned the arrest could "lead the conflict into even darker corners, and called on Israel to release Barghouti at its own initiative and quickly."
Fatah's military wing last night warned that if Barghouti is harmed, the organization will target the prime minister and the chief of staff. "We know how to reach their homes," said the statement, which also warned the United States that if Barghouti is harmed, its embassies will be targeted overseas. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
