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Israel Abducts Palestinian Suspects, Raids Palestinian Town
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli tanks chased two Palestinian gunmen into the West Bank town of Jenin on Wednesday, after occupation troops abducted 17 Palestinians, including five Palestinian Authority security service members, in an overnight raid on another West Bank village, residents said Wednesday.
According to Israeli radio, many of those abducted were suspected of involvement in retaliatory operations against Israeli targets, news agencies said.
A BBC online report said that 18 men had been arrested during the raid.
The abductions were made after more than 100 soldiers entered the northern village of Azoun late Tuesday, blocked all roads and imposed a curfew, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
They left the village, some six miles (10 kilometers) from the autonomous town of Kalkiliya, early Wednesday.
While the village is under Palestinian administrative control, the Israeli army oversees security.
Meanwhile, two Palestinian gunmen were holed up in a house on the edge of the northern town of Jenin Wednesday after being chased into Palestinian-controlled land by Israeli tanks, security officials from both sides said.
The gunmen allegedly opened fire on an army outpost outside the Jewish settlement of Qadim, Israeli radio said, quoting security officials.
Israeli soldiers returned fire, but the Palestinians escaped into Palestinian self-rule land next to Jenin.
The soldiers tracked them down to a house where the men took cover. The Palestinians then threw two grenades at soldiers and border police, injuring one policeman slightly.
A firefight erupted around the house, Palestinian and Israeli security officials said, during which the tanks fired two shells into the building.
According to Jenin hospital officials, two Palestinian civilians were injured in the exchange, as the tanks and two jeeps entered 400 yards into Palestinian territory to besiege the house.
Also late Tuesday, the Israeli army lifted a blockade of the autonomous West Bank town of Jericho imposed at the beginning of the month.
The Israeli defense ministry said it had been lifted as part of measures aimed at improving conditions for the Palestinian population but that army patrols would continue.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Wednesday remained confined by Israel to the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Israeli government officials say Arafat cannot leave Ramallah, where he has been marooned since the beginning of the month, until he arrests the two killers of cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi. Israel says the killers are hiding in Ramallah.
It also wants him to jail Ahmad Saadat, the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), likewise said to be at large in Ramallah.
Israeli Likud Minister Tzachi Hanegbi told Israel Radio that Arafat would be confined to Ramallah "until he arrests the murderers," Israel's
Ha'aretz daily reported.
Israel's hawkish premier, Ariel Sharon, made Arafat's visit to Bethlehem for Christmas conditional on the apprehension of Ze'evi's murderers.
Arafat would be able to go to Bethlehem "if he arrests people involved in the killing who are in Ramallah - and the Palestinians know who they are - by this [Monday] evening," an official said quoted by
Ha'aretz.
The PFLP claimed Zeevi's assassination in October in revenge for Israel's assassination of its own leader two months before.
The Israeli government stuck to the ban it clamped on Arafat's traditional trip to Bethlehem for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, despite international and domestic pressure to allow the visit, the daily said.
The political standoff has earned Sharon criticism from Europe and from his own country.
Many Israeli critics saw Sharon's ban on Arafat's traditional appearance at Bethlehem Christmas services as a propaganda coup for the Palestinian leader, who had been increasingly isolated since Palestinian bomb attacks rocked Israeli cities at the start of December.
The Vatican on Monday condemned Israel's ban on Arafat from traveling to Bethlehem as "arbitrarily imposed" and said it had tried to convince Israel to reverse its decision,
Ha'aretz said.
In another development, senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials met in Gaza Wednesday to discuss security measures to be implemented after a drop in violence in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.
A top Palestinian security official said his side asked the Israelis to ease travel restrictions between towns in the wake of a Palestinian crackdown on activists, which has curbed frequent mortar attacks on Jewish settlements and closed offices of Islamic groups.
He added that Israel had already started allowing more Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to return to jobs in the Israeli-run industrial zone of Erez there and to cross into Israel itself to seek work.
The last joint security meeting was held in the West Bank on December 19 and ended, according to the Palestinians, in failure.
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