Israeli tanks rolled into Nablus early on Wednesday and seized total control of the northern West Bank town, arresting at least 30 Palestinians in a stepped up retaliation for a kibbutz shooting which killed five Israelis, Palestinian security sources said.
The incursion came a day after an Israeli raid on Tulkarem refugee camp, not far from Kibbutz Metzer in northern Israel that was attacked on Sunday.
More than 150 armoured vehicles backed by helicopter gunships entered Nablus at 4:00 am (0200 GMT) from the east and west, moving towards the centre of town and opening fire, apparently without any serious resistance, the sources said.
”Our forces intervened overnight in the West Bank, notably in Nablus and neighbouring refugee camps, as well as in Bir Zeit” north of Ramallah, the army said in a statement.
At least 30 Palestinian suspects were arrested during the night, it said. Palestinian sources said two of them were wanted members of the radical Islamic group Hamas who were captured in Askar refugee camp.
Within an hour of the incursion, the Israelis had complete control of Nablus, while its casbah, the old town, was circled by tanks. Palestinian sources said the casbah appeared to be the main target.
Israeli media said earlier that the government was poised to launch tough reprisals for the attack which killed five residents of Kibbutz Metzer, including a mother and her two small boys. But the army says rather than spectacular raids, it is likely to model future operations on its methodical two-week sweep of Jenin which ended on Saturday in the killing of an Islamic Jihad chief accused of masterminding attacks that killed 31 Israelis since June.
”The soldiers received a mandate to operate for as long as necessary to destroy the infrastructures of Palestinian terrorist organisations following very many alerts of attacks planned from these sectors,” Israeli public radio said.
The kibbutz attack was claimed by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement. On Tuesday, the army said it destroyed the house outside Tulkarem of the alleged organiser of the attack, a member of Fatah.
According to the Haaretz newspaper, the military sweep in the Nablus area is aimed at capturing three local Hamas leaders.
In another raid on Wednesday, Israeli helicopter gunships hit Gaza City, targeting a metal workshop which already came under attack two days earlier in the eastern Al-Zeitoun district, Palestinian security sources said.
They said five rockets were fired and a generator was also hit in the raid, which the Israeli army said targeted a workshop used to make arms.
Tuesday’s incursion into Tulkarem was the first time the new rightist government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had to decide on military action since the Labour party, seen as a moderating influence, walked out of a broad-based coalition on October 30.
But the same constraints — US demands for calm ahead of its anticipated war on Iraq and the fact that the whole West Bank has already been reoccupied since June — appeared to have stayed the government’s hand, despite rising calls for Arafat to be banished.
Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told a right-wing Likud party convention in Tel Aviv late on Tuesday that he would build his election platform on expelling the Palestinian leader.
But Sharon, who now plays the unlikely role of the government’s leading moderate, came out on top in a showdown with his rival and appears to be firmly in control of his party with its 300 000 members poised to choose their new leader during November 28
primaries.
Israeli public television reported that agreement was reached at the convention for the loser of the primaries to fill the number two spot in the party.
Meanwhile, the three candidates for the centre-left Labour party’s leadership in the January 28 elections called for separation between the Jewish state and the Palestinians.
Residents of Mezter, a left-wing collective community, said they blamed the Palestinian gunman and not their neighbours in the West Bank, a few hundred metres away.
The violence further complicates US State Department envoy David Satterfield’s mission to the region, aimed at discussing a new ”roadmap” for peace with both parties and regional players.
He met with top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat in the West Bank town of Jericho early on Wednesday and was to travel on to Amman for a two-day stay before returning to the Palestinian territories for further talks.
The ”roadmap” calls for a de facto Palestinian state to be established next year with provisional borders, and a definitive state by 2005.
It also calls for an end to Palestinian attacks and an Israeli army withdrawal from reoccupied Palestinian cities. – Sapa-AFP