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Israeli Army Continues Bethlehem Occupation, 3 Israeli Settlers Killed
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Settlement infiltrated despite Israeli army protection |
BETHLEHEM,
May 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - At least four Israelis, 3
of them settlers in the West Bank, and two Palestinians were killed
late Tuesday, May 28, as Israel continued to mount raids on West Bank
towns, abducting scores of Palestinians.
The
Israeli occupation army continued to occupy Bethlehem for a second day
running, after declaring it a “closed military zone”, banning
journalists from entering, setting up roadblocks around the town and
imposing a curfew, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
And
on Tuesday night, Israeli troops moved into the West Bank city of
Ramallah and conducted house-to-house searches as they hunted for a
local Hamas leader, a Palestinian security official said.
The
latest hostilities came as the Palestinian intifada, or uprising,
entered its 21st month and two senior U.S. officials prepared to head
for the region in yet another bid by Washington to get the peace
process moving again.
They
also coincided with word that Palestinian president Yasser Arafat
plans to shake up the Palestinian leadership within 10 days and hold
presidential and legislative elections in December 2002.
Three
Orthodox Jewish students and a Palestinian were killed in a shoot-out
on Tuesday, evening in the Jewish settlement of Itmar near the West
Bank town of Nablus and one other settler was lightly injured,
settlers there said.
They
said the Palestinian was shot dead by an Israeli security guard after
infiltrating and attacking the settlement.
A
Palestinian was killed in Jenin when shooting broke out as Israeli
tanks, backed up by helicopters, rolled into the town, security
officials said. The army withdrew around midday (0900 GMT).
In
addition, an Israeli was killed as his car came under fire near the
Jewish settlement of Ofra, north of Ramallah. Settlers said he had
been shot by a Palestinian but a Palestinian ambulance driver said the
shots could have come from an Israeli army roadblock only 20 meters
(yards) away.
Israel
continued its new tactics of frequent, short-term raids into
Palestinian self-rule towns to search for suspected resistance
activists.
The
army says it has seized dozens of suspected activists in its raids so
far, while Palestinians have accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon of using the heavy-handed tactics to erode Palestinian autonomy
and wipe out the 1993 Oslo peace accords which he had opposed.
An
army spokesman said 11 Palestinians wanted for “terrorist
activities” had been abducted in Jenin, including the regional head
of the Islamic resistance movement group Hamas, Khaled el Had, the
army said.
He
said eight other Palestinians had been abducted in the West Bank - two
in Hebron, two in Beit Jala near Bethlehem, two at Azzun near Qalqilya
and two in the village of Beit Anan north of Jerusalem. They were
handed over to the internal security service Shin Beth for
interrogation.
A
Palestinian official told AFP the Palestinian governor of east
Jerusalem, Jamil Nasser, had been abducted by Israeli police and
secret service agents as he was visiting the offices of the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) political commissioner for Jerusalem
affairs in the Israeli-occupied east of the city.
Meanwhile,
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Italy that Washington was
not ready to put forward a peace plan for the Middle East. “We are
not, at this point, prepared to table an American plan with specific
deadlines,” Powell said.
U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs William Burns is
due to begin a trip to the region in Egypt on Wednesday, May 29,
before going to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Saudi
Arabia, Syria and Lebanon, a senior U.S. official said. Powell said
Burns would consult Middle Eastern officials on a “political way
forward.”
His
visit will dovetail with one by E.U. foreign policy chief Javier
Solana, who will also visit the same countries. It will precede a
visit by CIA chief George Tenet, who will be looking at ways to
reorganize the Palestinian Authority's security apparatus.
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