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Major
Israeli Incursion As Zinni Sees Sharon
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| Will
Zinni’s Smile convince Sharon of Peace |
NABLUS,
West Bank, Jan. 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The Israeli occupation
army, with helicopters and tanks, raided a Palestinian West Bank village Friday
January 4, 2002, as U.S. peace envoy Anthony Zinni prepared to meet Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, residents said, news agencies reported.
Israeli
units entered the village of Tel, in an autonomous Palestinian area near Nablus
in the north of the West Bank and imposed a curfew, reported Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
The
mayor of Tel, near Nablus, said up to 20 Israeli tanks had entered the village
shortly before dawn, reported BBC’s online news service on Friday.
Israel,
on Thursday, claimed that it had withdrawn troops from areas in the West Bank -
a move the Palestinians dismissed as a public relations stunt.
An
Israeli military spokesman said: "Our forces have been acting in the
locality for several hours, searching for terrorists."
The
spokesman said the area had been declared a "closed military zone" off
limits to the press.
Israeli
public radio claimed the aim was to capture Palestinians suspected of taking
part in anti-Israeli attacks. It said some arrests had been made but not of the
alleged ringleaders.
Military
sources said such raids, using special forces to snatch "terrorists"
had replaced in the past few weeks the much criticized policy of assassinating
those alleged to be responsible for suicide and other attacks.
The
Israeli major incursion took place as Zinni began talks Friday with (hawkish)
Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon. The talks are expected to see arguments
over the implementation of a U.S. ceasefire plan, Israeli officials said.
Israeli
security officials said earlier Friday after meeting Zinni that he was seeking
immediate implementation of the Tenet plan for securing a lasting ceasefire
between Israelis and Palestinians.
Sharon,
for his part, is insisting on seven days of "complete calm" in the
occupied Palestinian territories before putting the Tenet plan into effect.
An
Israeli official said Friday that Defense Minister, Binyamin Ben Eliezer and
Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres - who is at odds with Sharon over how soon to
begin implementing Tenet - were also at the talks at Sharon's farm in southern
Israel.
The
Tenet understanding, named after U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director
George Tenet, sets out a mechanism for implementing a ceasefire, after which the
Mitchell plan - a blueprint for getting the peace process back on track after 15
months of the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation forces - can be
put into effect.
Zinni
is later scheduled to see Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat in the West Bank
City of Ramallah, where he has been blockaded by Israeli forces for the past
month.
After
his arrival late Thursday Zinni met Ben Eliezer and military and security
officials.
Zinni, a former U.S. Marine Corps general, is on
his second mission to the region. The first ended in mid-December after three
weeks amid an explosion of violence which saw the death toll from the
14-month-old Palestinian Intifada soar past the 1,000 mark, mostly Palestinians,
majority of which are children and women.
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