HIGHLIGHTS: Balata & Askar Refugee Camps Surrounded||Time to Restore Some Sense of Hope, William Burns||More Pressure on Arafat to Implement Reforms||STORY: Israeli occupation troops and armor thrust into the West Bank city of Nablus early on Friday and surrounded the Balata refugee camp, the base of the militant Palestinian group allegedly behind a Resistance bombing and shooting attack earlier in the week. (Read photo caption)

Backed by covering fire from helicopters hovering overhead, dozens of armored personnel carriers and several tanks rumbled into Nablus under the cover of darkness, taking up positions around Balata camp and in several other areas in the West Bank's largest city.

BALATA CAMP CUT OFF FROM REST OF NABLUS

The camp is a main base for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed group in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.

Israeli occupation forces cut electricity to Nablus before launching the raid in the early hours of Friday morning, residents said.

The echo of gunshots rang through the city as occupation troops fanned into several outlying areas and cut off Balata refugee camp from the rest of Nablus.

An Israeli military source said troops were conducting an operation in the area but declined to provide further details. The army had no immediate comment.


A STEPPED-UP PEACE INITIATIVE BY U.S. & EUROPEAN UNION ENVOYS

The raid followed a stepped-up initiative by U.S. and European Union envoys to end 20 months of violence in which more than 1,800 people have been killed since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began in September 2000.

"There has been too much suffering and too much death for both Palestinians and Israelis," the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, William Burns, said on Thursday after meeting Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"It is time to restore a sense of hope," he told reporters.

The new, coordinated international initiative followed renewed Palestinian bombings and stepped-up Israeli military incursions which underlined the obstacles to peace.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer met Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Arafat on Thursday.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is due to meet Arafat and Israeli leaders at the weekend.

NO LET UP IN VIOLENCE

There has been no let-up to the violence, meanwhile. Israeli soldiers sent to extract an army vehicle overturned on the Egyptian border in the south Gaza Strip came under attack on Thursday from pipe bomb-wielding Palestinians and fired back, wounding 15 people, including an 11-year-old child.

Earlier, Israeli armor made a foray into the Palestinian part of the divided West Bank city of Hebron, and the army said it had seized four wanted men, one an Islamic Jihad militant.

The occupation army also re-entered northern districts of Jenin on the West Bank and imposed a curfew. Occupation army sources said troops were chasing a Palestinian who ran a checkpoint. He was caught and later released, but armed men appeared and shooting erupted.

MORE PRESSURE ON ARAFAT TO IMPLEMENT REFORMS

U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking in Washington, stepped up pressure on Arafat to overhaul his security forces and prevent attacks against Israel. "Mr Arafat needs to be responsible," he said.

Under pressure from Palestinians and Western governments, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat approved a law he had put off signing for five years, which will form the basis for a Palestinian constitution, officials said Thursday.

The law is made up of a preamble, written by Arafat, and 112 articles. One of the provisions says the president can be dismissed if a court finds him guilty of a criminal offense and two thirds of the legislative council vote to dismiss him.

It also declares Islam the official religion and bases Palestinian law on Islamic law, declares freedom of expression and obligates the Palestinian Authority

to provide for the families of "martyrs," a reference to Palestinians killed in the conflict with Israel, including suicide bombers.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli occupation Army tanks and armored vehicles move into the center of the West Bank city of Nablus, in the early hours of Friday, May 31, 2002. The Israeli occupation troops entered Nablus in about 40 tanks and armored personnel carriers, Palestinians said, heading for two Palestinian refugee camps, Balata and Askar. Israeli occupation army sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that an operation in Nablus was underway. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
- May 30 11:00 PM ET