The Israeli army began calling up reservists under emergency procedures on Sunday as it continued its partial occupation of the West Bank, a military source told public radio.
”This call-up is part of a plan aimed at facing up to the danger of terrorism,” the source said, adding that the reservists called to the colours must serve for a maximum of 30 days.
”If necessary we will call up more,” the source added.
Initially some 2 000 men, comprising three battalions and various other units, would be mobilised.
A military communique said earlier that ”Because of the security situation the Israeli defence forces are ordering the urgent recall of reserve soldiers … which will begin on Sunday, June 23.”
The communique added that ”after training they will join the fight against Palestinian terror”.
Following a series of suicide attacks last week which killed more than 30 Israelis in Jerusalem and the West Bank Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s security cabinet decided Friday to reoccupy Palestinian self-rule areas until the attacks ceased.
The move was slammed by Palestinian officials, who accused Israel of seeking to destroy the Oslo accords which granted the Palestinians autonomy and the Palestinian Authority.
But Israeli Environment Minister Tsahi Hanegbi claimed that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had buried the 1993 accords when he ”unleashed the intifada,” the Palestinian uprising which broke out in September 2000.
”We have taken account of this in ordering the reoccupation of autonomous areas in the West Bank,” the hardline member of Sharon’s Likud party told the radio.
”We are thus going to return to the situation prior to Oslo, which enabled Israel to prevent daily acts of terror launched against its citizens from those areas,” he said. – Sapa-AFP