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Israeli Troops Flex Their Muscles in Occupied Territories
OCCUPIED WEST BANK, July 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In a further show of force against the Palestinians, Israel has beefed up its military troops in the occupied West Bank, news agencies said.
Although denying plans to retake Palestinian land after a new surge of bloodshed and violence, Israel deployed tanks and troops across the West Bank Wednesday, choking off Palestinian towns.
The Palestinians warned that the army reinforcements were a "dangerous escalation" of the tension between the two sides, already running at fever pitch since Israel killed four Palestinians on Tuesday in a helicopter missile strike.
Witnesses said hundreds of troops - backed by tanks, helicopters, armored carriers and artillery - had dispersed across the West Bank, surrounding villages, taking hilltops and entirely closing off the holy city of Bethlehem.
A Palestinian mother and her two children were injured in the village of Abu Nujeim when an Israeli personnel carrier crashed into their house.
Palestinians were blocked from traveling to or from Bethlehem, where thousands of angry mourners were laying to rest the four men killed in Tuesday's aerial attack, an action the Palestinian Authority called "an act of war."
All shops, public transportation and government offices in the town were shut down for an official day of mourning.
Speaking in London, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel had no plans to recapture Palestinian territory; but rather, claimed that it was taking measures to prevent another bomb attack like the one Monday that killed two Israeli soldiers.
"We don't have a choice but to intercept them at an early stage," he told BBC Radio, "Because once they are on their way, we cannot stop them."
He went on to say that any talk of a new military offensive against the Palestinians was "all imagination" and insisted Arafat "like us, does not have a choice but to return to peace and reason."
Public radio said the Israeli security cabinet had given its full backing for the "interception" of occupation resistance activists.
The Israeli occupation army said the bombing was the first mortar fire from the West Bank since the Palestinian uprising broke out in late September of last year.
Two activists from the Hamas anti-occupation movement were among the four killed in Tuesday's raid on a Bethlehem house; which was packed with women and children. Fourteen people were wounded, including a young girl who lost an arm.
The army said the house was a "base for a Hamas cell" that they claim was planning an attack on the closing ceremonies of the Maccabiah Games (the Jewish Olympics), to be held next week in occupied Jerusalem.
Arafat met with influential Arab ministers in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss what his top aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina, told the French news agency AFP about the "Israeli escalation" of the conflict.
After Tuesday's Israeli strike, a coalition of Palestinian groups, including Arafat's Fatah movement, said that all Israeli occupation settlers and soldiers would be considered potential targets and that a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was "over."
The June 13 truce negotiated by U.S. intelligence chief George Tenet, and agreed to by both sides, has failed to take hold due to empty promises that were never backed up by the facts on the ground. More than 40 people have died since then, mostly Palestinian teenagers and children.
Palestinian Cabinet Secretary, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, told AFP that the rush of Israeli troops into the West Bank would further destabilize the situation and that his side was still committed to peace.
"This is a dangerous military escalation that is aimed at destroying what has been achieved already towards restoring calm through the Palestinian commitment to the Tenet agreement," he said.
"Israel is trying to push the situation back towards tension and escalation," he said.
State Department spokesman, Philip Reeker, reiterated Washington's call for restraint Tuesday, saying it was "within the power of the parties to bring the level of the violence down."
The deteriorating situation was set to dominate talks Wednesday between foreign ministers from the Group of Eight (G-8) nations preparing for a summit in Italy.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that a European Union plan to send international observers to monitor the conflict, opposed by Israel but supported by the Palestinians, was "premature."
There were scattered incidents of gunfire exchange in several West Bank locations and the Israeli army said mortar bombs were fired towards a post near Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported.
Extra patrols and dogs are being deployed in areas near larger Palestinian towns that border Israeli territory, as Israel deployed more soldiers and tanks around Palestinian towns in the biggest movement of forces since the Palestinian uprising began 10 months ago.
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