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Palestinians
walk through the rubble of homes destroyed by Israeli forces
Thursday, in the Jenin refugee camp. |
JERUSALEM,
April 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Blindfolded and
handcuffed, hundreds of Palestinian men were detained for
interrogation by Israeli agents Thursday, April 11, as right-wing
Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, stepped up his ruthless military
offensive in the West Bank, the British daily newspaper, the
Independent, reported.
The
acceleration came just hours before the arrival in Israel Thursday of
U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, on a ceasefire mission that
seems doomed to be devoured by the flames of war.
Israeli
officials said Thursday that more than 4,000 Palestinians had been
arrested during the fortnight-long invasion of Palestinian-run areas
of the West Bank. Of these, 120 were on Israel's list of wanted
"terrorists", officials said, according the U.K. paper.
The
Israeli Prime Minister and his generals showed no sign of bending to a
chorus of demands from the White House, Britain, the E.U. and others
in the international community to end the assault, which grew louder
still Thursday as the world got its first glimpse of its worst
battlefield, Jenin.
Foreign
journalists and aid workers who got into the town of 180,000
Palestinians found many homes reduced to rubble. Others had bites
taken from their walls by passing tanks or were punctured by charred
holes left by helicopter missiles. Water pipes and electricity poles
were badly damaged.
Residents
insisted that the soaring Palestinian death toll of the “crazy”
West Bank offensive, which Chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erakat,
put at around 500, includes civilians, some of whom were shot for
breaking an Israeli occupation army curfew.
Thursday
night, Israeli military bulldozers destroyed more of the Jenin refugee
camp, which has been cut off from medical care, food supplies and
electricity as Palestinian fighters mounted their week-long
resistance, killing 23 Israeli soldiers. Thursday morning, three dozen
fighters – including a wounded 13-year-old boy – surrendered to
the Israeli army in the camp, after running out of bullets. But
sporadic shooting continued at night.
"They
have really bashed the place up," said one U.N. official, who
Thursday drove through the town, which has been closed to outsiders
for a week.
As
Sharon pressed on with what he depicts as an anti-terrorist operation
aimed at stopping attacks on Israel, Powell has made it explicit that
the U.S. views Israel's strategy as misguided. He has sent
increasingly understanding messages to the Palestinians in the past
few days.
His
relatively tough words were moderated slightly by the White House,
whose spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said that the U.S. believed Sharon was
committed to peace – a view not shared by any Palestinians and
questioned by a number of foreign diplomats.
"However
long the Israeli incursion continues, the problems will still be
there," said Powell Thursday, during a visit to Jordan, the
latest stop in a regional tour in which he has been criticized for
failing to go straight to Israel. "The violence and anger and
frustration which feeds that will still be there unless we find a
negotiating process that leads to a Palestinian state."
Asked
whether he was on an impossible mission, the general snapped: "I
don't like wallowing with pessimists. It is necessary for me to
go."
According
to UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, 3,000 Palestinians
have been made homeless from the Jenin refugee camp. British Foreign
Secretary, Jack Straw, on Thursday added his voice to the many
expressing alarm over human rights abuses in the West Bank, said the
Independent.
A
large number of the arrested Palestinians are being held under
military law in heavily guarded Israeli detention centers without
being charged or allowed access to lawyers.
The
Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, says it has evidence of torture.
Earlier this week, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected a
petition from human rights organizations, including B'Tselem,
demanding that detainees have access to lawyers.
The
Israeli occupation army admitted Thursday to abducting more than 4,000
Palestinians in its two-week offensive in the West Bank - nearly
double the figure announced two days earlier.
In
sweeps through Palestinian towns and villages, Israeli occupation
troops have ordered teenage boys and men to assemble in schoolyards
and other outdoor areas for questioning. Others have been abducted in
house-to-house searches.
The
military said that 4,185 Palestinians have been abducted since the
start of the so called "Operation Defensive Shield," which
was launched March 29.
In
an earlier announcement Tuesday, the military said about 2,100
Palestinians were in custody.
It
was the most extensive sweep since the Palestinians' 1987-1993
uprising against Israeli occupation in which thousands of Palestinians
were arrested by Israel.
