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Israel Sweeps into Qalqilya Few Hours after Bush’s Call to Withdraw
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Supported
by 15 armored vehicles and two helicopters, Israeli forces
stormed into Qalqilya 8 hours after the U.S. president’s
call for withdrawal
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JERUSALEM,
April 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) –Only eight hours after
U.S. President George W. Bush renewed his demand that Israel complete
its withdrawal of troops from Palestinian territories, the Israeli
army early Friday made an incursion into the autonomous Palestinian
town of Qalqilya in the north of the West Bank, a military spokesman
announced.
In
the pre-dawn incursion, Israeli occupation forces abducted up to 20 Palestinians,
the Israeli military said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The
abducted Palestinian men, whom Israel claims it suspects of having
allegedly taken part in anti-Israeli attacks it failed to specify,
were picked up in Qalqilya as well as three villages between the West
Bank towns of Nablus and Jenin, a military spokesman said.
Witnesses
told AFP Israeli soldiers, supported by around 15 armored vehicles and
two helicopters, stormed into Qalqilya and abducted two senior local
members of the Islamic resistance group Hamas.
In
the village of Jaba, near Jenin, the army arrested 10 people linked to
the Palestinian
Authority security forces and to Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, said the
sources.
On
April 9, Israeli forces withdrew from Qalqilya after occupying it
under Operation Defensive Wall launched March 29. The Israeli military
sources claimed Friday, April 26, that the latest sweep was allegedly
not aimed at re-occupying the town.
On
Thursday, April 25, Bush, who held a five-hour meeting with Saudi
Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz, renewed his demand that Israel
complete its withdrawal of troops from Palestinian territories, adding
that Israel must find "non-violent" ways of ending armed
standoffs in Ramallah and Bethlehem.
"Israel
must finish its withdrawal, including resolution of standoffs in
Ramallah, in Bethlehem, in a nonviolent way," Bush said, after
hearing from his guest that backing for Israel was harming U.S.
interests in the Arab
world.
Bush
said he and the Saudi prince agreed that the world must step up
humanitarian aid "to the many innocent Palestinians who are
suffering."
"Our
two nations share a vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, living
side-by-side in peace and security," said the president, who
applauded the prince's land-for-peace proposal for ending the Middle
East conflict.
Abdullah’s
peace initiative, which offers full recognition of Israel in return
for withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967 and the creation
of a Palestinian state, was endorsed by last month's Arab summit in
Beirut. The Arab peace plan was met by Israel's deadly offensive in
the West Bank.
A
few hours after the U.S. leader made his call, Israel pressed its sweep through the West Bank in a
fresh incursion seen as an attempt to reoccupy the autonomous
Palestinian town of Qalqilya.
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