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Israel Ignores Peace Calls, Reoccupies Nablus, Balata Camp
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50
Israeli tanks, armored vehicles and personnel carriers, under
cover of helicopter gunships, attacked Nablus at dawn Friday. |
NABLUS,
West Bank, May 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Hours after
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called for “diplomacy,
negotiations and peace” in the Middle East, the Israeli army made a
large-scale incursion into the West Bank town of Nablus early Friday,
reoccupying part of the Palestinian self-rule town and the Balata
refugee camp, Palestinian security and Israeli military sources said.
The
latest offensive, which Palestinian witnesses said involved infantry
units, backed by around 50 tanks, armored vehicles and personnel
carriers under cover of helicopter gunships, was the latest of
Israel's now daily raids into Palestinian self-rule towns.
An
Israeli military spokesman was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as
saying that "the army was operating in the autonomous zone"
and said "a curfew has been imposed in Nablus where the army had
taken up position in various places."
A
military source said the occupation army abducted two Palestinians in
its incursion.
The
Israeli army also said that it had entered the town of Qalqilya, to
the west of Nablus, AFP reported.
The
incursions are aimed at further undermining the Palestinians’
autonomy, already weakened by Israel's massive incursions into West
Bank cities last month.
The
Israeli army captured 12 Palestinians in three separate West Bank
raids Thursday, May 30, in the autonomous Palestinian sector of
Al-Khalil (Hebron) in the south, in a village near Tulkarem, and in
the rubble-reduced refugee camp of Jenin in the north.
At
least two of the abducted Palestinians were members of the Islamic
resistance movement Hamas.
In
Bethlehem, south of occupied Jerusalem, Israeli forces pulled out
Thursday after a four-day reoccupation during which the army abducted
42 Palestinians. The army said it was still surrounding the town.
In
early March, the Israeli army had occupied Balata camp, home to 20,000
people for three days in a massive incursion in which its forces moved
from house to house by tearing down partition walls.
The
latest Israeli reoccupation of Nablus came hours after German Foreign
Minister Joschka Fischer described the situation in the Middle East as
"terrible" and called for renewed political peace talks.
Speaking
Thursday after a meeting in Ramallah with Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat, Fischer said: "The situation is terrible, we see the
suffering of the people, we hear the moaning of the families of the
innocent victims on both sides.
"This
situation must be changed. Diplomacy, negotiations and peace must have
the upper hand," he said.
"We
have to open the door back to the negotiating table and a real peace
between Israel and the Palestinians," said Fischer, who earlier
held talks with hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Arafat
described the German Foreign Minister's visit as "very
important” and said it “was a very good opportunity to discuss
with him about all issues and in detail, to reach a real peace in the
Middle East and to return back to negotiating table."
"The
peace is not necessary only for us or the Israelis, but for the whole
region and whole world," said the Palestinian President.
Fischer
said he backed the three-track approach forwarded by U.S. Middle East
envoy William Burns, who spoke with Arafat earlier Thursday.
"There
has been too much suffering and too much death for both Palestinians
and Israelis," Burns told reporters after meeting Arafat in the
West Bank of city of Ramallah.
"It
is time to restore a sense of hope," said Burns, who arrived in
Israel earlier Thursday and was due to meet Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon either later in the day or Friday.
Burns's
visit was part of a new coordinated diplomatic effort with European
envoys aimed at halting a conflict which has claimed more than 2,000
lives, mostly Palestinians, since the outbreak of the second
Palestinian Intifada (Uprising) against Israeli occupation in
September 2000 after peace talks broke down.
The
United States, Israel's main ally, sees the continued Israeli
aggressions on the Palestinian people and the daily Israeli incursions
into autonomous Palestinian Territories as an obstacle to winning Arab
support for an imminent military strike on 12-year-old-sanctions-hit
Iraq.
Burns
said that in talks with Arafat he had presented U.S. President George
W. Bush's view that for Palestinians to achieve statehood in peaceful
coexistence with Israel they had to reform their institutions and stop
martyr operations against Israel.
Burns'
Middle East visit coincided with peace mediation by European Union
foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who spent Thursday in Lebanon
discussing the situation with political leaders there.
CIA
director George Tenet is also due in Israel in the coming days, for
talks on restructuring the Palestinian security forces.
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