Steve Quayle News Alerts

May 25, 2002

BETHLEHEM, West Bank, — Israeli tanks and troops raided Bethlehem on Saturday for the first time since ending its siege on Palestinian militants inside the Church of the Nativity on May 10, local witnesses said. The troops seized much of the city Saturday, imposed a curfew and surrounded the home of Muhammed Shehade, a local leader of the Islamic Jihad group, which has assumed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings.

PALESTINIAN RESIDENTS heard explosions coming from the area around Shehade’s house, but there were no immediate reports on casualties.

There was no word on how long the army was likely to stay in Bethlehem, just south of Jerusalem. However, it was not expected to be for long.

Israel completed a major military sweep through the West Bank several weeks ago, but the army continues to carry out almost daily raids in pursuit of suspected militants. Most of the incursions last a day or two at most, and in some cases, only hours.

Soldiers entered Bethlehem in jeeps followed by tanks and armored personnel carriers and shooting broke out with Israeli helicopter gunships whirring overhead, they said.

Palestinian police said Israeli troops were searching houses within 660 feet of Manger Square, site of the church built over the presumed birthplace of Jesus.

The army had no immediate comment on the reported raid.

Israeli troops lifted a 39-day siege of the Church of the Nativity after 39 militants inside who were wanted by Israel agreed to go into exile in Europe or to the Gaza Strip.

TWO KILLED IN GAZA
Israeli troops killed a Palestinian woman and her 13-year-old daughter working in a field, witnesses and doctors said. Kamla Abu Said, 42, was killed, along with her daughter, Amna, 13.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops fired tank shells and machine guns, killing a Palestinian woman and her 13-year-old daughter who were working in a field, Palestinian witnesses and doctors said. The army said the two were in a prohibited area, near Gaza’s eastern border fence with Israel.
The army said soldiers fired on two “suspicious figures” because they were in an area off-limits to Palestinians and were moving toward the fence, military sources said.
Palestinians have attempted to launch attacks in the area seven times in the past month, the sources said.
Marwan Abu Said, a Palestinian witness and a relative of those shot, said the soldiers fired from three tanks patrolling the border, next to the flat, open field. He said he was not aware of any provocation that prompted the fire.
Kamla Abu Said, 42, was killed, along with her daughter, Amna, 13, according to Dr. Ahmed Rabah at the Deir al-Balah hospital. Abu Said’s 15 year-old niece was slightly injured.

SEARCHES IN TULKAREM
Earlier Saturday, the Israeli army conducted door-to-door searches in the West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem, uncovering explosives and guns and arresting four Palestinians, the army said. At least one soldier was killed and two more wounded in the search for Palestinian militants, the army said.
The troops were in the camp and the adjacent town of Tulkarem in an operation that was launched after a series of suicide attacks inside Israel. Tulkarem is just inside the West Bank and many attacks by Palestinian militants have come from the town.
As the troops moved into the camp Friday, Palestinian militiamen ambushed Israeli soldiers riding atop an armored personnel carrier at the camp’s entrance. One soldier was killed and two were wounded, the army said.
Tank gunners fired shells and machine guns and four Palestinians, including a woman and a 4-year-old child, were wounded, Palestinian doctors said.
The Israeli army said troops had detained four Palestinians in Tulkarem and defused a bomb found in one house. Palestinian sources in the city said 25 people had been detained.

PALESTINIANS CONFINED
Israeli troops on Friday also took up positions in Tulkarem and imposed a curfew. Palestinians were confined to their houses and in one instance, more than 30 women, 50 children and eight men were held in one apartment.
The apartment’s owner, Al Maza Badran, told Tulkarem governor Izzedine al Sharif that they had run out of food and water.
Several Palestinian families had been rounded up and held in 15 different apartments for their own protection, military sources said, as the soldiers scoured the neighborhood looking for militants. The army was coordinating with the Red Cross to provide the many families with food and aid.
An Israeli army spokesman said the Tulkarem raid was needed to “strike at a broad terrorist infrastructure based on warnings that terrorists are still active there.”

SERIES OF SUICIDE ATTACKS
The latest Israeli incursion into the West Bank came after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a pedestrian mall on Wednesday night, a bomb attack on Israel’s largest fuel depot Thursday, and an attempted attack on a nightclub early Friday.
An Israeli man stands near a burned-out tanker truck Thursday in the Gelilot depot, north of Tel Aviv, following an explosion. Click the "Play" button to learn about other recent bombings in lsrael.
Also Friday, an adviser to Yasser Arafat said the Palestinian leader was prepared to hold general elections this winter if Israeli troops pull back to positions they held before violence erupted on September 2000.
Israel, however, showed no indication that it would remove its forces from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On the contrary, Israel TV’s Channel Two reported that the army has been given permission to launch a new military campaign, including raids into Palestinian cities that could last for several days. Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said he was not aware of government approval for a new offensive.
Head-to-Head
A Mideast Debate
Sharon’s office said Friday that 32 Palestinian attacks had been foiled since Israel’s large-scale military operation in the West Bank wound down last week.

CALLS FOR REFORM
Meanwhile, Arafat is under growing pressure from abroad and at home to reform the Palestinian Authority, and to unify the multiple Palestinian security services into one agency.
Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdeneh also said that the Palestinian leader would appoint a new, smaller Cabinet for the interim period leading up to the elections.
The leader of the militant Islamic Hamas movement, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, told the Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera that the group might participate in the elections. In 1996, Hamas refused to participate in elections.
Meantime, a Palestinian woman trying to reach hospital gave birth at an Israeli army roadblock near the West Bank town of Bethlehem early on Saturday after soldiers denied her passage. The baby died later, doctors said. The army had no immediate comment.
“We arrived at the al-Khader checkpoint but Israeli soldiers refused to let us pass even though they saw the situation,” Fadia Najajra, 23, said. “I was crying and asking for them to let the car pass.”
Elsewhere in the West Bank, troops entered seven villages around the town of Qalqilya overnight and were searching homes, Palestinian witnesses said. The army did not comment.
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