Israel tightens stranglehold
Guardian, April 1, 2002
Israel tightens stranglehold
· Tanks roll into West Bank towns
· Palestinian collaborators lynched
· Lebanon shooting raises new fears
Staff and agencies
Monday April 1, 2002
The Israeli army today occupied the West Bank town of Qalqilya and put
tanks outside Bethlehem as its campaign against Palestinian militants,
which the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, calls a "war", spread out from
Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah.
Late last night bulldozers and about 60 tanks moved
into Qalqilya, in the northern West Bank. A military spokesman said troops
were searching for suspects and intended to "destroy the terrorist infrastructure"
in the town.
Soldiers have also seized positions overlooking
Tulkarem, near Qalqilya, tightening their closure of the town.
Also in Tulkarem, the bodies of eight suspected
Palestinian collaborators were found lynched. A further two bodies were
discovered in Qalqilya and another in Bethlehem.
Palestinian security sources said the two men in
Qalqilya, who had been arrested and charged for collaborating more than
a year ago, had been killed by their prison guards.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an offshoot of Mr Arafat's
Fatah movement, said Mahmood Rahamie, whose body was found in Bethlehem,
had been killed after he was caught sending information to the Israelis
through the internet and email.
Tanks rolled into southern Bethlehem just before
sunrise and stopped about 500 metres from the church believed to be on
the site of Jesus' birthplace. They pulled back a few hours later to leave
40 on a hill overlooking the town.
Forces also briefly occupied the village of Al Khader,
south west of Bethlehem, witnesses said. A curfew was imposed in Beit Jalla.
And in Ramallah, Israeli troops trapped Mr Arafat
in his office for a fourth day. Israeli troops were using bulldozers to
build an embankment of dirt around the compound.
In a televised address last night, Mr Sharon branded
Mr Arafat "an enemy of Israel" responsible for a bloody series of suicide
bombings.
The Palestinians' chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat,
dismissed the speech, saying it was "void of substance, void of hope, void
of realism".
Suicide bombers struck twice on Sunday. In Haifa,
a bomber blew up a restaurant, killing himself and 15 Israelis, leaving
a scene of devastation and flames.
Another set off explosives in Efrat, south of Jerusalem
in the West Bank, killing himself and wounding a paramedic who stopped
him from entering the centre of the settlement.
The Israeli defence minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer,
told Israeli radio today that the operation would "hit" terror.
"We are defending our homes. We have no other place.
We are going to defend our homes with all our strength," he said.
Late yesterday, Israeli troops fired on a group
of Palestinian police attempting to surrender in Ramallah, killing five
and injuring several more, said a policeman in the building and Palestinian
officials.
In a statement, the Israeli army said "wanted men"
were in the building and one of them, wearing an explosive belt, opened
fire on the Israelis.
The soldiers chased him and shot him dead, it said.
The statement added that Israeli soldiers entered
Ramallah hospital to look for suspects, but "categorically denies false
Palestinian claims of a mass murder and massacre at the hospital".
In the West Bank town of Hebron, about 1,000 Palestinians
marched late yesterday to protest against the Israeli occupation of Ramallah.
Gunmen fired in the air as marchers chanted slogans
calling for more suicide bomb attacks in Israel.
In 18 months of fighting 1,269 people have been
killed on the Palestinian side and 416 on the Israeli side.
Late yesterday, Hizbullah guerrillas fired at an
Israeli army base on the Israel-Lebanon border, security officials said,
the second such incident in two days. It also raises the possibility of
a new front in the conflict.
The clashes followed vociferous support for the
Palestinians from the head of Hizbullah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.
· At a meeting of the Organisation of the
Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, officials from 57 Muslim
countries today condemned Israel's incursions into the West Bank and the
encirclement of Mr Arafat's headquarters. They also urged the UN security
council to intervene to protect the Palestinians.
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