WEST BANK: RESCUE TEAMS RECOVER BODIES FROM NABLUS RUBBLE/ ISRAELI ARMY ARREST LEADING FATAH ACTIVIST.

Record ID: 400302

  • Title: WEST BANK: RESCUE TEAMS RECOVER BODIES FROM NABLUS RUBBLE/ ISRAELI ARMY ARREST LEADING FATAH ACTIVIST.
  • Date: 16th April 2002
  • Summary: (U5) NABLUS, WEST BANK (APRIL 15, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV/TV: BULLDOZERS DIGGING IN THE RUBBLE, SEARCHING FOR BODIES/ DAMAGE (3 SHOTS) 0.31 2. MV: MEN WATCHING THE WORKS 0.34 3. MV/ZOOM OUT: WORKERS LOOKING AT HOLE IN RUBBLE 0.45 4. GV: CHURCH WHICH WAS RUINED BY THE VIOLENCE, PRIEST WALKING IN RUBBLE (2 SHOTS) 1.10
  • Embargoed: 1st May 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NABLUS AND RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA5LVVGNX4JYY9XQAUYTV2B6KH5
  • Story Text: The Israeli army has arrested Marwan Barghouthi, a
    leader of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction
    and regarded by Israel as the top militant in the West Bank,
    Israeli security sources said.

    Palestinian rescue teams in Nablus continued to pull
    bodies from the rubble created during Israel's invasion of the
    city and the ensuing fierce gunbattles between Israeli and
    Palestinian forces.



    Rescue workers used bulldozers to clear the rubble and
    search for bodies in the West Bank town of Nablus on Monday
    (April 15). Bodies recovered were put into black plastic bags
    and placed in refrigerated trucks or given a swift burial in
    makeshift graves.

    The city of Nablus has been the scene of some of the
    fiercest battles of the military offensive Israel launched on
    March 29 in the West Bank, two days after a suicide bomber
    killed 28 Israelis in the coastal resort of Netanya.

    A Christian Orthodox priest showed reporters the damage
    done to his church. He blamed Israeli troops for attacking
    churches and mosques, saying: "You know, all the chuch,
    mosques is holy. And now you see the Jews is not care about
    anything."
    Marwan Barghouthi, arrested by Israel on Monday (April 15)
    , is accused of leading militants who have carried out scores
    of attacks on Israelis and is regarded by Israel as the top
    militant in the West Bank.

    Barghouthi, a leader of Palestinian President Yasser
    Arafat's Fatah faction, has always denied the allegations. But
    that has not stopped Israel hunting him relentlessly since it
    launched a West Bank offensive on March 29.

    Two days later, Israeli forces entered his parents' home
    in the Palestinian village of Kobar, near the city of Ramallah
    where troops have besieged Arafat in his headquarters, and
    interrogated relatives about his whereabouts.

    He was discovered on Monday in an apartment in Ramallah
    and arrested by the army, Israeli security sources said.

    Barghouthi is no ordinary Palestinian activist. As an
    exile he coordinated an uprising by youths in 1987-1993 that
    analysts say helped produce the 1990s peace process.

    More recently, with his Fatah role, he has been the chief
    coordinator of the current uprising against Israeli occupation
    and has become increasingly well known throughout the Middle
    East.

    He is the highest-ranking Fatah activist detained by
    Israel since the start of the campaign, which the army says is
    aimed at rooting out terrorism.

    Barghouthi, an ebullient and determined figure in his
    early 40s, told Reuters in December 2000 that Palestinian
    anger stemmed from lost hopes for a normal life.

    aid.


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