HIGHLIGHTS: Curfew Eased on Jenin, Hebron & Bethlehem But Remains in Force in 4 Other Palestinian Cities||Israel Now Suspects that Palestinian Students in Technical Fields May be Involved in Bomb-Making||Head of Palestinian Guard in Hebron Arrested, Beaten & later Released||Top Palestinian Officials Continue Criticizing Bush's Call for Arafat's Removal||Ben-Eliezer's So-called Peace Plan||U.S. Florida Professor Accused of Being No. 2 Palestinian Islamic Jihad Man|| STORY: The Israeli occupation army spread its net on Tuesday for suspects in Palestinian bombings, rounding up about 100 university students in Hebron, but it eased a curfew imposed in another reoccupied West Bank city.

The occupation army scaled back a curfew in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, allowing residents to run errands between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Curfews were relaxed similarly in Hebron and Bethlehem earlier in the week.

But the Israeli occupation authorities kept hundreds of thousands of Palestinians locked down in Ramallah, Nablus, Qalqilya, Tulkarm and an increasing number of smaller towns and villages.

PALESTINIAN STUDENTS ROUNDED UP

In Hebron, a city of 120,000 Palestinians and 400 heavily guarded Jewish settlers, witnesses said Israeli occupation troops surrounded the polytechnic college and rounded up about a third of the 300 students inside. (Read photo caption)

All but four were released after questioning, they said. Israeli intelligence circles believe Palestinian students in technical fields may be involved in bomb making.

An army spokesman said Osama Zalahat, an Islamic Jihad militant, was arrested in Kfar Yatta near Hebron for plotting suicide attacks, but had no comment on the students.

Palestinian sources said the occupation army also arrested 10 other Palestinians in Hebron overnight including the local head of the Palestinian national guard, Colonel Sharif Abu Mailek, who they said was beaten and then freed after six hours.

The occupation army briefly vacated the northern city of Qalqilya on Tuesday before charging back in to conduct more house-to-house searches, with around 50 people held in the street outside their homes in one neighborhood, witnesses said.
Palestinian sources said Israeli troops detained two more activists of Arafat's Fatah movement after raiding their homes in Bethlehem and nearby al-Khader.

BUSH'S DEMAND FOR ARAFT'S REMOVAL

A former Palestinian security chief joined a chorus of Palestinian criticism of President Bush's call for the removal of Yasser Arafat, saying it amounted to a U.S. demand for a "coup d'etat" that would complicate peace efforts.

The Palestinian Authority, while denying Israeli accusations of involvement in bombing attacks, says they are unlikely to end until Israeli troops vacate populated areas and Palestinians regain hope for a state through negotiations.

Palestinians accuse Sharon, not in power when the interim peace deals were signed, of trying to destroy any basis for a Palestinian state that he and 200,000 Jewish settlers, one of his key constituencies, have long opposed.

Bush stepped up pressure on the Palestinians last week when he called on them to replace Arafat, the Palestinian president, with leaders "uncompromised by terror."

Mohammed Dahlan, former Palestinian security chief in Gaza who has been mentioned as a potential Arafat successor, wrote in Britain's Guardian newspaper it would be wrong to criticize or dump Arafat at a time when he is "under siege" in the West Bank.

"There is no question of changing the leadership in these circumstances," Dahlan said. "As long as the Israelis are against Arafat, I'm with him -- whatever reservations I have about some of the decisions that have been made."

BEN-ELIEZER'S PEACE PLAN

In Tel Aviv, the Israeli Labour Party headed toward a crossroads over the divisive issues of peacemaking with Palestinians and its future as a partner in Sharon's right-dominated coalition.

The center-left Labour Party, second largest party in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition after the right-wing Likud, was set to vote later on Tuesday on a peace proposal put forth by its chairman, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.

Ben-Eliezer has had to fend off internal criticism over Israel's West Bank clampdown and discontent over Labour's "national unity" alliance with the right formed in response to a Palestinian uprising.

Some 4,000 Labour delegates were to vote on a Ben-Eliezer script for peace entailing an eventual Palestinian state and removal of some Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands Israel took in the 1967 Middle East war.

Left-wingers also pressed for debate on whether Labour should ditch its alliance with Sharon. Ben-Eliezer rejected the idea in a speech on Monday night

U.S. FLORIDA PROFESSOR ACCUSED OF BEING THE NO.2 MAN OF ISLAMIC JIHAD

A former US Justice Department attorney has sued a suspended professor linked to Palestinian Resistance, saying the academic is the No. 2 official in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The lawsuit claims University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian is a member of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network through the confederation of so-called terror groups.

John Loftus, a retired St. Petersburg attorney who is suing as a taxpayer and as president of the Florida Holocaust Museum, did not provide evidence to back up his claims in the revised suit filed Monday in Hillsborough County Circuit Court.

Al-Arian's attorney, Robert McKee, called the lawsuit "kind of crazy, more foolishness."

"I think Mr. Loftus is abusing the legal process to gain notoriety ... to sell books or gain bookings on the lecture circuit," McKee said.

Last month, a judge dismissed Loftus' suit against the computer science professor, which claimed violations of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Hillsborough Circuit Judge Perry Little found Loftus' claim that Al-Arian personally hurt him to be unfounded.

Al-Arian has been under investigation since 1995 after a now-defunct think tank and charity he founded were linked to so-called terrorists. He has never been charged with a crime.

A former think-tank director brought to the university by Al-Arian, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, abruptly left in 1995 and resurfaced as the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Al-Arian is on paid leave from the university over inflammatory statements on terrorism he made following Sept. 11.

University President Judy Genshaft has indicated she will decide by next month whether to fire him.

18 AMERICANS REFUSED ENTRY TO ISRAEL

In Another development, Israel barred 18 Americans from entering the country and put them on a flight back to the United States on Tuesday as part of a policy of refusing entry to foreigners who want to show solidarity with the Palestinians.

The Americans arrived at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport on Monday with the aim of going to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Tova Ellison said.

The U.S. group included naturalized citizens born in Pakistan, Egypt and Iraq, she said. Two members of the U.S. group were admitted entry because they have Israeli citizenship. A British citizen traveling with the Americans was put on a flight back to Britain.

The U.S. Embassy said it was checking on the matter and did not immediately comment. U.S. citizens normally receive a 90-day tourist visa upon arrival in Israel.

Israel began refusing entry to supporters of the Palestinian Authority in March. Since then, about 120 foreigners have been expelled from Israel and more than 200 have been refused entry.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli soldiers arrest Palestinian students from the Palestine Technical University in the West Bank city of Hebron on July 2, 2002. (Nayef Hashlamoun/Reuter