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Israel Damages Church, Maintains Control Over West Bank
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| Israeli soldiers
abducted hundreds of Palestinians
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RAMALLAH,
West Bank, June 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Israeli
occupation army said it had “mistakenly” destroyed the gates of a
disused orthodox church near the
West Bank
town of
Ramallah
before dawn Saturday, June 1, while Palestinians accused the army of
destroying the church.
“It
was very dark and the soldiers couldn’t see anything identifying the
structure, there was no sign showing it was a religious place,” an
Israeli army spokeswoman said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
She
added that the troops had been looking for Palestinians seen earlier
carrying flags of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The
soldiers only realized the place was a religious site after blowing up
the gate and entering the grounds, the spokeswoman said, adding that
it was not marked as a religious site on the army's maps.
However,
residents of Abud village and Palestinian officials told AFP the
church had been destroyed by the army’s explosives.
Village
resident Bilad Barghouti said he had been awoken by the blast. “All
the people of Abud were woken up by the sound of the explosion which
completely destroyed the church,” he told AFP.
They
said the building was an orthodox medieval church called St.
Barbara’s, which was restored a few years ago but not currently in
use for religious services.
A
statement from the Palestinian ministry of tourism said the church was
one of four in and around the village near Ramallah which had
historical and religious significance.
The
church, which is located on a hill less than a mile outside the
village, was used every year by monks for a religious festival, the
ministry said.
Archimandrite
Attalah Hannah, spokesman for the Orthodox Church in
Jerusalem
condemned “the aggression against a holy place with historical
importance.”
Meanwhile,
Israel
maintained military pressure on the
West Bank
Saturday, reoccupying most of
Nablus
and sending troops back into
Bethlehem
and other places to hunt for what they called “suspected
militants”, AFP reported.
The
army was conducting for the second straight day a vast operation in
Nablus
and its neighboring Balata refugee camp, where on Friday troops
abducted hundreds of Palestinians for questioning. Most were later
released.
The
army also blew up the home of the family of Jihad Titi, an 18-year old
who carried out a resistance attack on Petah Tiqvah, a Tel Aviv
suburb, that left two Israelis dead and more than 20 wounded last
Monday, May 27.
On
the diplomatic front, CIA Director George Tenet arrived in the
Middle East
on his long-awaited mission to help Palestinians reorganize their
security services, a
U.S.
official said Saturday.
The
official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tenet left
Washington
Friday.
The
CIA chief will meet with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near
Eastern Affairs William Burns, who met Thursday with Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
A
senior official of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on
Saturday ruled out staging an Islamic summit on the Palestinian issue,
as requested by Arafat.
“Contacts
between Islamic leaders show there is no enthusiasm for holding the
summit,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Qatar
, current OIC chair, has come out in favor of holding a special Arab
summit on
Israel
's military offensive in the Palestinian territories, a call that was
also supported by
Libya
and
Yemen
.
Arafat
called in mid-April for a summit during a massive and bloody military
offensive codenamed “Operation Defensive Shield” launched by the
Israeli army March 29. 
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