Jerusalem Post Internet StaffTEL AVIV (April 2) -
Tank-backed IDF units
carried out a fierce gunfight with Palestinians at a compound housing
Palestinian Authority West Bank Security Service head Jabril Rajoub's
offices, west of Ramallah before dawn. Forces first called on the
Palestinian inside the structure to surrender, and when they refused,
Israel Air Force helicopters fired a number of air-to-ground missiles at
the buildings, as tanks began shelling, in an operation, which began at
1:30 a.m., Army Radio reported.
Palestinians said one building was engulfed in flames and that there were
many casualties. Rajoub had given orders to the 400 men inside to resist.
"Of course, I could not give a different order," he said. Fatah leader
Marwan Barghouti is also hiding in the structure, according to the army.
Rajoub denied the charge. At least 20 of the hundreds of people trapped
inside were wounded.
After daybreak, there were no signs of life. An Israeli soldier in a tank
said the Israelis had not allowed Palestinian ambulances to approach.
After daybreak, the flames had ebbed, leaving two of the buildings in the
compound smoldering, blackened wrecks, one with a shattered roof. Holes
were visible in the walls of several other buildings in the compound.
Soldiers stopped the assault briefly several times to renew demands that
those inside surrender.
Palestinian officials said that Israeli soldiers used 60 Palestinian
civilians as a human shield in front of the tanks before the assault, Army
spokesman Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz "categorically denied" the charges.
Palestinians said women and children were among the wounded. Israel banned
reporters from the scene, and there was no independent confirmation. The
battle wound down just before daybreak, they said. In a statement, the
Israeli military said many "leaders responsible for the recent wave of
terrorism" were holed up in the building and had ignored an ultimatum to
surrender. Rajoub, who was in Ramallah, said, "The situation is very,
very, very difficult." He denied that terrorist suspects were in the
building. Rajoub has said he instructed his forces to "fight to the last
bullet."
There are no reported injuries to Israeli forces. For the first time, a
senior Israeli official gave a time frame to the military operation.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told the US network MSNBC, "We are in the
territories for three or four weeks. We don't intend to occupy the
places." "We are defending our homes. We have no other place. We are going
to defend our homes with all our strength," Defense Minister Binyamin
Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio.
Meanwhile, In Bethlehem, Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops exchanged
heavy gunfire on the edge of Manger Square, just outside the Church of the
Nativity. A helicopter gunship hovering over the square exchanged fire
with about a dozen gunmen near the church, according to live footage
broadcast by the local Shepherds TV station. The gunmen also came under
fire from Israeli tanks deployed some distance downhill from the square.
About a dozen gunmen taking cover behind buildings fired assault rifles at
Israeli tanks deployed some distance from the square, according to live
footage broadcast on the local Shepherds TV station. Israeli tanks fired
heavy machinegun at the armed Palestinians.
Palestinian gunmen have frequently used the area around the church as a
refuge, with the expectation that Israel would try to avoid fighting near
the shrine. Shooting was reported in the city's Fawara neighborhood. A
soldier sustained minor wounds in the clash, Israel Radio said. An Apache
attack helicopter fired at Palestinians shooting at soldiers. Israeli
forces have entered Bethlehem several times in the past 18 months of
fighting, but in the past kept a distance from the Church of the Nativity,
one of Christianity's holiest shrines.
Elsewhere in Bethlehem, an armored personnel carrier fired several rounds
at the Star Hotel where about two dozen journalists covering the
incursions are based, said Iyad Moghrabi, a cameraman on assignment for
Associated Press Television News, Moghrabi said a cameraman for the Arab
satellite TV station Al Jazeera was lightly injured in the head by
shrapnel. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the fighting
near Manger Square and the shooting on the Star Hotel. The IDF gathered
its forces in the vicinity all day yesterday and tanks were dispatched
periodically toward the town from El Khader and Beit Jala, which have been
under IDF curfew for two days.
During the day, Palestinian gunmen strutted around the city and Manger
Square vowing not to surrender and fight to the end. Some painted their
faces in camouflage style similar to IDF soldiers. Six foreign protesters
were injured, none seriously, when an Israeli soldier fired into the
ground in front of them as they marched in Beit Jala.
Elsewhere, battalions of IDF reservists went into action last
night, moving into Tulkarm, Kalkilya, and several villages near Nablus in
the northern West Bank, and towns near Ramallah. Other IDF armor-backed
units also pushed into Bethlehem, El Khader, and Beit Jala. At least 16
Israeli officers and soldiers were wounded, three seriously, during the
IDF takeover yesterday of Kalkilya and while making arrests in Ramallah. A
heavy exchange of fire was reported in the Al Amari refugee camp south of
Ramallah.
At Ramallah Hospital, the bodies of 25 men killed during the
Israeli incursion were being stored in the morgue. Hospital officials said
they had not been allowed by Israeli troops to transport the bodies out
for burial. More troops movements were expected around Jenin, as the IDF
launched a multi-front campaign to draw a buffer between the terrorists
and Israel.
The offensive is expected to peak over the holiday as all 20,000 reserve
soldiers become deployed. Reserve forces tightened the closure around
Nablus, but it was not clear whether that city would be invaded at this
time. For the fourth day, the IDF swept through Ramallah.
Yesterday afternoon, a squad from the Duchifat battalion stumbled upon a
room where three Palestinian gunmen were hiding. In the ensuing clash, one
IDF officer was hit and seriously wounded and another officer moderately
wounded. They killed one gunman, wounded another, and captured the third.
Six other soldiers were also treated for light wounds from the clash, the
army said. The officers were helicoptered to a Jerusalem hospital after
being taken to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's former
landing pad.
In the center of Ramallah, an APC mounted with a Vulcan antiaircraft gun
pulverized the facade of a building where Palestinian gunmen were holed
up, sending chunks of masonry plunging to the street. Israeli security
forces, meanwhile, continued to tighten the siege around Arafat. A Border
Police contingent was brought in to deal with any further attempts by
foreign journalists or civilians to force their way in to his compound as
they had on Sunday, much to the embarrassment of the IDF. The army also
widened the perimeter around the Mukata headquarters compound by blocking
the roads with vehicles overturned by IDF bulldozers.
At least 25 Palestinians, all men in their 20s and 30s, have been killed
in fire-fights since the IDF moved into Ramallah. They were nearly all
being kept at the Ramallah Hospital morgue since there has not been a
chance to bury them yet. "Almost everyone we get is dead - not wounded,
but shot dead on the spot," an emergency doctor, Muhammad Butrawi, told
the Associated Press.
In Kalkilya, heavy mechanized units swept through town without any serious
opposition. At one point a bomb was detonated against a squad sweeping
through a house in search of fugitives. One was evacuated with serious
wounds and the rest treated for light wounds. Sporadic firefights took
place throughout the day, but there were no further casualties reported as
the soldiers fanned out with a list of sites where security agents said
fugitives, weapons, or bombs could be found. The army clamped a curfew on
most of the city. Residents told Palestinian reporters that the IDF had
cut off electricity and water to both Kalkilya and Tulkarm prior to the
assault.
Troops also moved into villages surrounding Kalkilya and Tulkarm.
Witnesses said that the army also set up new outposts at key positions.
Meanwhile, Palestinian reports said that the IDF is hunting Tanzim leader
Marwan Barghouti in the Ramallah area. They have detained some of his
relatives from his village of Kobar for interrogation, Itim reported.
In a statement describing the military operation, codenamed
Defensive Wall, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz indicated it
would be large-scale and lengthy. "Because of the nature, complexity, and
length of the missions," he wrote, "we decided to mobilize reserves. "Our
war is not directed against the Palestinian people. We are fighting
against terrorism and its perpetrators. We shall wage this war with
determination and wisdom, while respecting the values of the IDF. We shall
respect human dignity adamantly. We shall not harm civilians and the
innocent."
Etgar Lefkovits adds: The ratio of attacks carried out by the Tanzim and
groups associated with Arafat's Fatah faction against Israeli targets over
the last year and a half, compared to those carried out by the Islamic
Jihad and Hamas, stands at 5:1, Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit said
yesterday. Blasting Arafat as a "chronological liar" and a "terrorist" who
is "unlikely ever to be Israel's peace partner again," the one time dovish
justice minister - who was one of the few Likud MKs who supported the Oslo
accords - said Arafat has established an "unprecedented state of terror"
within the 42 percent of the West Bank that is under his full or partial
control. "There is no phenomenon in the world where there is a terror
state such as Arafat's," Sheetrit told reporters last night at the press
center at Jerusalem's International Convention Center. Sheetrit noted
that, since the outbreak of the intifada 18 months ago, there have been
about 21 terrorist attacks a day against Israeli civilians and security
officials, including shootings, bombings, and mortar attacks that have
killed 124 Israelis in the last month alone. "For 18 months we gave Arafat
chance after chance to stop the violence and every time he lied and lied,"
Sheetrit said.
At the press conference, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Ron Kitrey revealed that
the IDF has made extensive arrests in Ramallah since the operation began
five days ago. "We have arrested more than 700 people in Ramallah,
including a relatively large number of wanted people at different levels
of importance," Kitrey said. "We are looking for wanted people who are
hiding in private buildings, in apartments... We know they are hiding in
official buildings ... There are some who are hiding under Arafat's wing."
Kitrey accused the Palestinians of putting out "massive disinformation,"
including a report of a "massacre" committed against Palestinian
policemen. He also produced a photo of a supposedly dead Arafat "killed by
an IDF soldier" from an Arabic Web site. (With The Associated Press) |
