JENIN, West Bank (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Israeli tanks rolled toward Palestinian-ruled Jenin under the cover of darkness early on Tuesday, Palestinian security officials said, two days after a Resistance bomber who Israel believes was recruited in the West Bank city killed three Israelis.(Read photo caption below)
The Israeli occupation army declined to comment on the reported operation and there was no independent confirmation that the armored force had actually entered the city.
Calls rang out from loudspeakers on minarets in Jenin for Palestinians to confront the Israelis. Heavy gunfire could be heard but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Residents said electrical power went out in Jenin soon after the tanks began to roll.
Israel Radio's military affairs correspondent, who is briefed regularly by the occupation army, said the Israeli armored force had moved into Palestinian-ruled territory on the outskirts of Jenin with the aim of encircling but not entering the city.
She reported that Israeli occupation forces would take up positions around Jenin and block Palestinians from entering or leaving.
Observers say, an invasion of Jenin would almost certainly wreck the immediate prospects for planned truce talks between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
Israeli forces last entered the city on August 14 for a three-hour operation in which they demolished a police headquarters.
In another part of the West Bank early on Tuesday, near the Palestinian-ruled city of Tulkarm, Palestinian Resistance men shot dead two Israelis in a roadside ambush, Israel Radio said.
PHOTO CAPTION:
An Israeli occupation soldier mans a machine gun next to a tank near the northern Israeli town of Ram On, 2 kilometers (1.07 miles) north of the West Bank town of Jenin, Monday, Sept. 10, 2001. Late Monday, Israeli tanks, infantry and heavy earth-moving equipment massed in Israel across from Jenin, witnesses said. Palestinian security officials, requesting anonymity, said Israeli tanks were converging on the town but the Israeli military refused to comment. (AP Photo/Uriel Sinai)