VARIOUS: ISRAELI FORCES SEARCHING FOR PALESTINIAN MILITANTS ATTACK BUILDINGS IN NABLUS/ ARAFAT GREETS SUPPORTERS/ BETHLEHEM SIEGE LATEST.
Record ID:
400584
VARIOUS: ISRAELI FORCES SEARCHING FOR PALESTINIAN MILITANTS ATTACK BUILDINGS IN NABLUS/ ARAFAT GREETS SUPPORTERS/ BETHLEHEM SIEGE LATEST.
- Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELI FORCES SEARCHING FOR PALESTINIAN MILITANTS ATTACK BUILDINGS IN NABLUS/ ARAFAT GREETS SUPPORTERS/ BETHLEHEM SIEGE LATEST.
- Date: 3rd May 2002
- Summary: (W4) NABLUS, WEST BANK (MAY 3, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: ISRAELI TANK FIRING IN STREET IN OLD PART OF NABLUS CITY/ EXPLOSION AS ISRAELI TANK FIRES AT BUILDING/ RUBBLE FALLS DOWN FROM ADJACENT BUILDING/ PALESTINIAN GUNFIRE FROM OVERLOOKING BUILDING/ ISRAELI TANK MOVING/ MORE OF PALESTINIAN RETURN GUNFIRE (10 SHOTS) 0.54 2. GV: AMBULANCES
- Embargoed: 18th May 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NABLUS, RAMALLAH, BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK/JERUSALEM
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA7L4RZ2EKXCCELNEH8XWXBVQ1W
- Story Text: Israeli forces have raided the West Bank city of
Nablus to root out a group of Palestinian militants. The
fighting in Nablus, in which three people were killed, and
the tense standoff at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity
underlined how far the two sides remain from peace.
In Bethlehem four more Palestinians, who are said to have
fallen ill, left the Nativity Church compound.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has greeted
crowds of supporters on the second day of his release from
Israeli confinement. Several hundred more marched through Ramallah
city to the Palestinian leader's compound in a loud show of support for
Arafat. Elsewhere in Ramallah, small scuffles erupted between
stone-throwing youths and Israeli troops remaining in
positions around the West Bank city.
In the latest in a series of Israeli incursions into
Palestinian areas, Israeli forces briefly raided the West Bank
city of Nablus early on Friday (May 3) morning.
The Israeli army said one officer was killed and another
was seriously wounded when they came under fire as they
stormed a building near Nablus's old quarter to detain
militants suspected of preparing a suicide bombing in Israel.
It said four militants were hiding in the building and
that Israeli gunfire hit two armed Palestinians during the
battle.
A Palestinian policeman and wanted Hamas militant were
killed in the fighting, Palestinian officials said.
Israeli tanks and troops thrust into the heart of Nablus,
where they cordoned off a building and soldiers began
conducting house-to-house searches shortly before dawn,
witnesses said.
They said 15 people, mostly Islamic militants, were
detained.
"During the operation the forces arrested four wanted
people suspected of planning to carry out a bombing in Israel
in the next few days," the Israeli army said in a statement.
Israeli forces said its troops also located two
bomb-making laboratories in the building where the wanted
people were hiding and found a car loaded with weapons.
Soldiers blew up the building and the vehicle, the army said.
Nablus governor, Mahmoud al-Aloul described the raid as
"a continuation of the Israeli aggression against the
Palestinian people".
"We don't have an option except to resist this
aggression by all means possible," added Aloul.
In Bethlehem, four more people, said by Palestinians to
require medical treatment, left the church on Friday. One of
the men was carried out of the church on a stretcher.
Israel says the people remaining inside are hostages but
Palestinians say they are staying of their own will.
About 30 Palestinian gunmen have been holed up with
priests and civilians since they took refuge inside the
Church of the Nativity as Israeli troops entered the
West Bank town on April 2.
Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser said Palestinians had proposed
that the men wanted by Israel be sent to Palestinian-controlled
Jericho -- a similar deal to that which ended the Israeli
siege of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's headquarters
in Ramallah on Wednesday.
Israel wants the gunmen in the church, whom it blames for
suicide bombings and shootings, to stand trial in Israel or be
exiled. The Palestinians say that is out of the question,
insisting they should at least be given safe passage to Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres indicated that he
was hopeful the standoff at the church in Bethlehem was
nearing an end.
"It (the standoff around the Church of the Nativity) will
be solved very soon and Israel will make a supreme effort to
bring a solution," said Peres.
Arafat emerged from his Ramallah compound on Wednesday
(May 1) night condemning Israel's stranglehold on Bethlehem
and the siege of the church, describing it as a crime in a
holy place.
Peres said in a statement on Friday it was the first time
in the Holy Land's history that armed people had gone into a
church to seek shelter, "against everything that is holy and
commonly accepted".
"I heard yesterday the accusation of Mr. Arafat. He
forgot that entering a church, this holy place, by armed
people is a violation of the religious code and the norms of
behaviour when it comes to a holy place," said Peres after
meeting a Japanese delegation in Jerusalem.
Palestinian officials said on Friday they had struck a
deal with Israel to bring food to people trapped in
Bethlehem's Nativity Church, and that talks to end the
standoff would resume later in the day.
Food is dwindling inside the 1,400-year-old building and
some people who have left the church in recent days said they
were living on lemon peel and grass.
Meanwhile, Arafat was showered with the support of
Palestinian crowds, waiting for him on the steps outside his
office on Friday.
Making the victory sign the Palestinian leader kissed
children standing nearby and talked to people crowding around
him.
Several hundred more supporters marched through the
Ramallah city centre towards the Palestinian leader's
compound.
Carrying Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PFLP and national flags,
the marchers chanted slogans of support for Arafat.
Several demonstrators held pictures of Ahmed Saadat, one
of the six men handed over at Arafat's compound under a U.S.
brokered deal.
On reaching Arafat's headquarters many of the people
marching in the rally climbed up upon mounds of rubble to peer
into the compound.
Nearby, Palestinian youths hurled stones at Israeli forces
remaining around the boundary of Ramallah. The Israeli troops
responded by firing rubber bullets.
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