VARIOUS: ISRAEL ENDS CONFINEMENT OF PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT TO WEST BANK BUT MILITARY RAIDS CONTINUE

Record ID: 588455

  • Title: VARIOUS: ISRAEL ENDS CONFINEMENT OF PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT TO WEST BANK BUT MILITARY RAIDS CONTINUE
  • Date: 12th March 2002
  • Summary: (U3) HEBRON, WEST BANK (MARCH 11, 2002) (REUTERS) SLV EXTERIOR HEBRON HOSPITAL; SCU BODY OF DEAD BOY COVERED IN BLOOD LYING ON STRETCHER; SCU DEAD BOY'S BROTHER CRYING (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 27th March 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: QALQILYA, DHEISHEH REFUGEE CAMP, HEBRON, GILO, RAMALLAH, WEST BANK / BUREIJ, GAZA / JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Conflict,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA73Q08LDNQWBQ6J7V4GH2B4ZF2
  • Story Text: Israel has ended the confinement of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to the West Bank city of Ramallah but continued its punishing military raids against the Palestinians.
    Israeli troops and tanks rumbled into Palestinian-ruled Qalqilya in the West Bank and into the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Witnesses said the soldiers killed one man and wounded two other Palestinians in the Gaza camp.
    In the Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem, hundreds of Palestinians were rounded up, blindfolded and searched for weapons.
    About 50 Israeli tanks and armoured troop carriers rumbled into Palestinian-ruled Qalqilya from three directions in the early hours of Monday (March 11) morning, cutting off the electrical supply before troops thrust as deep as a kilometre (half a mile) into the city.
    Plainclothes Israeli security men questioned young men one by one and three tanks took up positions in a main plaza.
    By daylight Israeli soldiers patrolled the almost deserted city. One blindfolded Palestinian was seen standing on the roadside accompanied by an Israeli soldier. Several other Palestinians had been rounded up and seated on the pavement, watched by Israeli soldiers.
    Two people were killed during exchanges of fire in the West Bank town, which is close to the Israeli border, as soldiers conducted house-to-house searches for militants, Palestinian sources said.
    Palestinians in the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip marched in the funeral procession on Monday (March 11) of a teenager killed during an Israeli incursion into the camp earlier in the day. Witnesses said Israeli soldiers killed one man and wounded two other Palestinians on entering the camp.
    After the funeral, Palestinians started throwing stones at Israeli tanks stationed nearby. Clouds of dust rose from the ground as the soldiers responded with gunfire.
    The Israeli army confirmed troops had taken over a Palestinian security building at the camp but gave no details.
    Israeli troops also ringed a West Bank refugee camp with tanks on Monday and intensified searches in another camp nearby, continuing their offensive in Palestinian-ruled areas following an upsurge of violence.
    In the Dheisheh refugee camp in biblical Bethlehem, the Israeli army stepped up its hunt for militants. An Israeli security source said soldiers rounded up between 500 and 600 men, who were blindfolded and searched for weapons. Several of the blindfolded men had their hands tied.
    Other Palestinians were forced to lift up their shirts in front of the Israeli soldiers in an apparent search for weapons.
    There were no reports of casualties in the camp, where troops have been conducting a sweep since Friday (March 8).
    In Sanour Village, a Palestinian teenage boy was killed in fighting on Monday between Israeli forces and Palestinians. The boy was taken to a Hebron hospital before relatives carried his dead body on a stretcher through the street, chanting revenge and blaming Israel for his death.
    On the outskirts of Jerusalem on Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer visited his troops in the Jewish settlement of Gilo, often targeted by Palestinian gunmen who shoot across the valley from the West Bank town of Beit Jala.
    In a reversal of policy, Israel announced that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is free to leave the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Israel has confined him for the past three months. However Arafat is still unable to travel abroad as his movement has been restricted by the Israelis solely within Palestinian territories.
    Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Arieh Mekel said on Monday, "The decision says that Prime Minister (Ariel) Sharon will no longer restrict the movements of Chairman Yasser Arafat throughout the Palestinian Authority territories. This means that he cannot travel outside at this given time, he can move around and travel throughout those territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority but not to other countries".
    The Palestinian Authority condemned the Israeli announcement. Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that "this demonstrates once again that (the Israeli) government does not honour any commitment, any agreements signed, any understanding reached".
    "This cannot be acceptable," added Erekat.
    Meanwhile, Arafat met the United States consul to Jerusalem, Ronald Shlicar, on Monday, on the eve of a visit to the region by U.S. Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni in an attempt to end the recent upsurge in violence between Israeli forces and Palestinians.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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