Troops may reclaim Arab areas
FRIDAY JANUARY 18 2002
BY CHRISTOPHER WALKER
ISRAELI forces may soon have to reconquer Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from which they withdrew after the Oslo Peace Agreement, according to a senior army officer.
The remarks by Major- General Moshe Ayalon, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, were published as Israel renewed its blockade of several Palestinian-controlled cities in the West Bank in response to a new wave of killings of Israelis.
Israeli police said that more attacks were being planned in the north of Israel, confirmed by last night’s attack in Hadera. They claimed that the post-Christmas lull in Palestinian violence had been tactical.
General Ayalon, speaking after 15 months of the second intifada, which has seen the death toll rise to 805 Palestinians and 240 Israelis, said: “Since the (1948) War of Independence, there have not been clashes such as there are today with the Palestinians.”
He accused Yassir Arafat of using terror as a tool to achieve his goals and said that Palestinian terrorist groups carrying out attacks were a kind of secondary agent for him. According to General Ayalon, while the Palestinian Authority leader viewed Hamas, the largest Palestinian Islamic terrorist group, as a rival, he was at the same time using it against Israel in the same way as Syria made use of Hezbollah in south Lebanon.
Long queues of Arab traffic spluttered to a halt yesterday at new checkpoints on the edges of Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarm, Jenin and Qalqiliya in the West Bank after the decision to toughen the blockades was taken by Israel’s security Cabinet at a three-hour emergency meeting. The restrictions had been eased after Mr Arafat’s televised appeal for a truce on December 16.
Terje-Roed Larsen, the UN Middle East envoy, said that Mr Arafat’s proposal had offered hope of a breakthrough, but added: “I am afraid that the opportunity is now slipping away from us.”
thetimes.co.uk |
