Israeli Troops Enter Ramallah
 

June 19, 2002

"Israel will respond to acts of terror by capturing Palestinian Authority territory. These areas will be held as long as terror continues."


(CBS) Israeli tanks and armored vehicles entered Ramallah from two directions early Thursday, witnesses said.

Tanks and armored personnel carriers entered the West Bank Palestinian town from Beitunia to the south and from the west, the witnesses said, heading toward the center of town, where Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has his headquarters.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Palestinians said about 20 Israeli vehicles entered Ramallah and were heading toward the center of town.

The incursion followed the second suicide bombing in Jerusalem in as many days. On Wednesday evening, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus stop, killing six Israelis and himself. More than 35 people were wounded. On Monday, another Palestinian bomber blew up a bus, killing 19 Israelis.

The blast Wednesday was claimed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, according to the Al Manar television station in Lebanon. The station is run by the Islamic group Hezbollah.

"We are successful at stopping between 80- to 90 percent of these attacks," Israeli government spokesman Danny Seaman told CBS News. "What you see here are the consequences of the 10 percent we can't stop."

About three hours after the bombing, Israeli helicopters opened fire on several targets in the Gaza Strip, including a steel factory, Palestinian security officials said. The Israeli army refused to comment.

Israel has often said that places like metal workshops are used to manufacture bombs and other weapons used by Palestinian militants in attacks on Israelis.

The suicide attack came hours after an Israeli announcement it would gradually reoccupy Palestinian areas until terrorism stops.

The announcement, seen by some as another step toward toppling Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority, was a response to Tuesday's attack.

CBS News reports that Hamas, which claimed credit for Tuesday's attack, is now calling its terror campaign "The War of the Buses".

In Washington, the White House condemned the bombing and said its immediate aftermath was not the right time for President Bush to lay out his ideas on Middle East peace.

Administration officials said a presidential announcement at this sensitive stage in the Arab-Israeli conflict would be unlikely to have a positive impact.

``The president knows what he wants to say. The president will share it when...it can do the most good,'' spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.

``I think the time will be soon...It's hard to get people to focus on peace today when they're still suffering from the consequences of terrorism as we speak.''

A trip to the Middle East next week by Secretary of State Colin Powell was also put on hold, though it remains under future consideration. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon adamantly opposes any form of Palestinian statehood at this time, and blames Arafat for failing to stop the attacks.

In one of his strongest condemnations ever, Pope John Paul II decried Tuesday's attack, saying "those who plot and plan such barbarous attacks will have to answer before God."

In the latest attack, the bomber emerged from a red Audi car, dashed to a covered bus stop and set off the blast, according to a police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The car sped away, disappearing into Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, the source added.

The explosion in the French Hill neighborhood blew out the back and the sides of the shelter, leaving just a concrete bench and the roof. An arm and a leg were among the body parts scattered on the street. A baby carriage was overturned, and rescue workers covered it with a black plastic bag.

Seven people and the bomber were killed, said Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy. More than 35 were wounded, several critically, rescue workers told army radio. Among the injured was an officer who was chasing the bomber, Levy said.

The blast occurred in a part of the city that Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, and which Palestinians claim for a future state.

"Zionists, leave our land because we will not stop our operations as long as there is an occupation," said the statement attributed to the Al Aqsa group, which is linked to Arafat's Fatah movement.

The Israeli decision to recapture Palestinian territory came after late-night consultations between Sharon and his coalition partners.

The announcement represented a major policy change and was made as Israeli troops entered three West Bank towns from which dozens of terror attacks have been launched.

In one area — near the town of Jenin and the adjacent refugee camp — troops set up an encampment of mobile homes and brought in water tanks, apparently preparing for an extended stay.

"Israel will respond to acts of terror by capturing Palestinian Authority territory," Sharon's office announced. "These areas will be held as long as terror continues. Additional acts of terror will lead to the taking of additional areas."

Aides to Arafat said Israel's new policy would only cause further bloodshed, and push militias to carry out more attacks. Ultimately, Israel seeks to replace the Palestinian Authority with Israeli civil administration, aide Saeb Erekat said.

Just how far Israel would go in retaking Palestinian territory wasn't clear. Before the Palestinians were granted full or partial authority over areas through the interim peace accords of the mid-1990s, Israel oversaw all aspects of daily life. Soldiers patrolled all towns, cities and villages, frequently imposing curfews that could close schools and offices for days or weeks.

Arafat, in a meeting with U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, stressed that Israel's new policy "will sabotage international efforts to save the peace process," according to Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdeneh.

Earlier Wednesday, dozens of prominent Palestinians made an unprecedented appeal to Islamic extremist groups to stop attacks on Israeli civilians.

Legislator Hanan Ashrawi and the Palestinians' senior Jerusalem official, Sari Nusseibeh, were among dozens of prominent Palestinians to sign a full-page newspaper ad urging groups behind deadly assaults on Israeli civilians to "stop sending our young people to carry out such attacks."

"We see no results in such attacks, but a deepening of the hatred between both peoples and a deepening of the gap between us," the ad in Al Quds newspaper said.

It urged all Palestinians who support such a call to sign on to it.

``We felt we had to chart a course, not just break the silence,'' said Ashrawi. ``We wanted to create a momentum to get people to think with their minds and to reason, instead of always reacting emotionally and out of revenge and pain and trauma.''

With the latest attacks, Palestinians have carried out 71 suicide bombings in the past 21 months of Mideast fighting, killing about 250 people on the Israeli side.

Palestinian pollsters have found that a majority of Palestinians support suicide bombings.

At least 1,400 Palestinians and over 500 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian revolt began in September 2000.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/06/08/world/main511573.shtml