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* Offensive May Last 4 Weeks; * Palestinian Dead Bodies Decompose in Morgue; * Rajoub's Compound Gutted By Tank Fire; * Resistance Attacks Continue Unabated; * A Second Front On Broder With Lebanon; * Sanctity of Shrines Violated. _____
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES, JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) -Battles have been raging almost around the clock, and Tuesday was no exception. (Read photo caption within)Tanks rolled into the West Bank towns of Tulkarem and Bethlehem before dawn, and the assault on the headquarters of Rajoub, in the West Bank village of Beitunia, also came in the pre-dawn hours.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the offensive would last three to four weeks, the first senior Israeli official to give a time frame. However, Sharon has said the campaign was open-ended.
Israel seized control of Bethlehem and another West Bank town Tuesday in a day of wild fighting that left at least 13 Palestinians dead.
In a dramatic gesture that underscored the brutality of the Israeli incursion, Palestinians buried 15 of their dead in a hospital parking lot in Ramallah. Families of the dead had been unable to claim the bodies, which were decomposing in a hospital morgue because power cuts made refrigeration impossible. Relatives wailed and gunfire from fighting echoed as the bodies were placed in common graves carved out by a bulldozer - one for 13 men, one for two women.
Ramallah residents, though, got a respite of a few hours from a curfew that has been in effect since Israeli tanks and troops moved in on Friday. People poured into the shops, lugging away canisters of cooking oil and plastic bags bulging with pita bread. Canned goods were popular, as many people have no electricity and perishable food has been rotting in refrigerators.
Mass roundups of Palestinian men ranging from their mid-teens to their mid-40s continued Tuesday - a tactic denounced by Palestinians as collective punishment.
By nightfall, most of the about 400 Palestinians trapped in the compound of West Bank security chief Jibril Rajoub near Ramallah had surrendered to Israeli occupation troops, in a deal brokered by U.S. and European officials. About eight men remained inside. The sprawling compound was battered by the Israeli onslaught, with gaping holes punched in rooftops and building facades by shellfire and rockets.
RESISTANCE ATTACKS CONTINUE UNABATED
Israeli troops pressed ahead with house-to-house searches for Palestinian militants and weapons as part of what Israel calls "Operation Protective Wall" - aimed at halting terror attacks targeting Israelis.
In the seventh such attack in as many days, a Palestinian man blew himself up Tuesday night when security forces stopped him at a checkpoint in Baka al-Sharkiyeh, a Palestinian village along the line between Israel and the West Bank. The man detonated explosives strapped around his body, killing himself but not injuring others, the military said.
Also Tuesday, two Israelis died of wounds sustained in last week's suicide bombing during a Passover banquet in an Israeli hotel. That brought the total number of victims to 24, making it the deadliest Palestinian attack in 18 months of fighting.
A Second Front Opens With Lebanon
Lebanese Hizbollah Resistance fighters attacked Israeli positions in a disputed zone near the Lebanese border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday.
Israel responded by firing shells and at least four missiles from warplanes at the edges of the nearby Lebanese border town of Kfar Shouba.
Hizbollah's TV station broke into programs to announce the action, but gave no other details.
Tension on the Israeli-Lebanese frontier has risen in recent weeks and there is concern in Israel that Hizbollah may try to open a second front with the Jewish state, now busy with raids on Palestinian towns.
Israel Violates Sanctity of Shrines
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat appealed on Tuesday for world intervention against Israeli "attacks" on Muslim and Christian shrines.
"Today in Bethlehem they (Israelis) surrounded the Church of the Nativity and they attacked many other churches and mosques," Arafat said in a telephone interview with the pan-Arab al-Jazeera television.
The Russian Orthodox church reported that Israeli occupation troops occupied one of its buildings in Bethlehem.
PHOTO CAPTION:
An Israeli tank takes up position at the Har Homa checkpoint at the entrance to the West Bank city of Bethlehem April 2, 2002. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Yasser Arafat could have only a 'one-way ticket' to exile as troops invaded more West Bank towns and met fierce Palestinian resistance in Bethlehem. (Gil Cohen Magen/Reuter
- Author:
Islamweb & News Agencies - Section:
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