Israeli Occupation Army Arrests Hundreds of Palestinians in The West Bank

01/06/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: Occupation Soldiers Blow up a Bomber's House||Resistance Sets off Two Mines Under Israeli Tanks||23 Palestinians Arrested in the Gaza Strip||STORY: Israeli armor surrounded a refugee camp in the West Bank town of Bethlehem early on Saturday, after forces detained hundreds of people in West Bank raids on Nablus and Tulkarm.

Three Israeli tanks and five troop carriers encircled Bethlehem's Deheisheh refugee camp, Palestinian security sources said. At least three bombers involved in recent attacks have come from the camp, six miles south of Jerusalem.

Israeli occupation army sources claimed the operation in the Palestinian-ruled town of Bethlehem -- from which occupation troops pulled out on Thursday after occupying parts of it for three days -- was a "patrol," routinely undertaken after a bomb alert.

In more sweeps for Palestinian militants, Israeli forces pushed into the West Bank cities of Nablus and Tulkarm on Friday.

INCURSION INTO NABLUS

Israeli occupation troops rolled into a refugee camp on the edge of Nablus on Friday, rounding up hundreds of Palestinian men, imposing a curfew and blowing up the home of a bomber

The Israeli occupation troops entered Nablus and the adjacent Balata refugee camp in dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers.

The camp is a stronghold of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a Resistance group that has carried out many deadly attacks, and which is linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

Arafat, speaking in Ramallah, denounced the incursion, saying, "this is Israel's message to the whole world, and proof they do not want to reach any agreement or any political settlement."

TITI'S HOUSE BLOWN UP

Israeli occupation troops on Friday detonated explosives, blowing up the house of 18-year-old Jihad Titi, after ordering members of his family living there to leave.

Israeli tanks fired on the Balata camp May 22, killing Mahmoud Titi, the Al Aqsa leader in the area. On Monday, his cousin Jihad Titi carried out a attack in Israel, killing two Israelis.

HUNDREDS OF PALESTINIANS ARRESTED

In the camp, occupation soldiers used loudspeakers to call on Palestinian males, ages 15 to 45, to turn themselves in. Hundreds of Palestinians walked through the dusty streets, their hands raised or clasped behind their heads, to an open area near a factory at the front of the camp. (Read photo caption)

As the Israelis checked the identities of the men, some were blindfolded and handcuffed.

Occupation soldiers also went house to house in the camp. In some instances, they broke through interior walls to go from one house to the next, rather than walk in the streets, where they would be exposed to snipers, residents said.

One Palestinian man was seriously wounded by Israeli gunfire, hospital doctors said.

In the city of Nablus, Palestinians set off two mines under Israeli tanks, and the tanks fired several shells, knocking out electricity in the eastern part of the city.

The Israeli incursion kept Palestinians off the streets. Soldiers went to a number of homes looking for militants and arrested about 10 suspects, including Issam Abu Bakr, a local Fatah leader, Palestinians said.

The Israeli military said a curfew was imposed in Nablus and the refugee camp and that the operation was continuing.

Occupation soldiers also arrested 23 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday and Friday, mostly at roadblocks. In two instances, the occupation army arrested armed suspects they believed were on their way to carry out attacks - including one
man who was disguised as a woman, said Lt. Col. Erez Katz.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Israeli occupation Army soldier leads blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian men being detained into a vehicle for transport, on the first day of an Israeli military incursion in the West Bank city of Nablus, Friday, May 31, 2002. Dozens of tanks and armored vehicles swept into Nablus early Friday, and have completely closed down what is the most populous city in the West Bank. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)