Posted on 06/22/2002 9:47:10 PM PDT by Davea
Sunday June 23, 7:17 AM
Israel shows signs of planning long-term West Bank re-occupation
Israel's re-occupation of West Bank cities, codenamed "Determined Path", showed signs of turning into a long-term affair, drawing harsh condemnation from the Palestinian leadership.
As the Israeli army maintained its grip on six out of eight Palestinian self-rule cities, a senior official said Israeli civil administrative rule for the territories might follow.
Defense ministry director Amos Yaron told Israeli public radio that "if the outcome of the operations underway is a long-term presence of the army on the ground, and if (the army) must answer the needs of the civilian population, then we will examine this and provide the answers."
He was commenting on a decision by the security cabinet Friday to re-occupy "as long as necessary" Palestinian self-rule towns until anti-Israeli attacks stop.
By Saturday, Israel was in partial or total control of Bethlehem, Jenin, Ramallah, Nablus, Tulkarem and Qalqiliya. Only Hebron and Jericho were spared.
Yaron's remarks drew a storm of protests from Palestinian officials.
"Israel is pouring oil on the fire," Palestinian Local Affairs Minister and top negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
"This is the Israeli scheme: to resume the occupation and destroy the Palestinian Authority and replace it with a civilian administration. This is a very dangerous development," he said.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo charged that Israel was planning "to impose military rule (in the West Bank) through what is being called civil administration.
"This is part of the plot adopted by (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon to put an end to the Palestinian Authority," he told AFP.
He also criticised the United States for condoning Israeli action, after US President George W. Bush said on Friday that Israel had the right to defend itself in retaliation for Palestinian suicide attacks.
"It is a shame that the Americans consider the Israeli action as a mere reaction, rather than see it for what it is: a bid to put an end to the Oslo (autonomy accords) and the Palestinian Authority," Abed Rabbo said.
That criticism came as a senior US official said disagreements remained among top Bush aides over the details of a new Middle East peace plan he was meant to unveil in an eagerly awaited -- but as yet unscheduled -- speech.
After Friday's security cabinet meeting, an Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity said: "I think that within a few days we will control all the West Bank and that we will stay there for a long time."
The army said its emergency call-up of reserves announced, two days before, would begin Sunday, as it plans to intensify its campaign to crush armed Palestinian groups.
"After training, they (the soldiers) will join the fight against Palestinian terror," it said in a statement.
Despite its ease in retaking cities, the army's campaign was marred by a shooting incident in the West Bank town of Jenin Friday that was reminder of what could go wrong in a long-term reoccupation of the West Bank.
Four civilians, three of them children, were killed by Israeli tank fire during a brief lifting of a curfew imposed on the town two days before, medical sources said.
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer expressed sorrow Saturday over the incident and promised an enquiry.
"The defense minister expressed his sorrow over the deaths and said the circumstances in which they died would be investigated," Defense Ministry spokesman Yarden Vatikai said.
The bloody incident followed a week of violence in which 31 Israelis were killed, as Palestinian suicide bombers struck Jerusalem twice and a gunman carried out a deadly attack on a West Bank Jewish settlement.
Ten Palestinians, including children, were killed on Friday alone.
And tensions flared again Saturday.
In the morning, Israeli troops fired rubber bullets at a school in the Dheisheh camp near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, leaving three students with non-life-threatening injuries, medical sources said.
The incident apparently resulted from confusion over the timing of Israel's lifting of a curfew on Bethlehem and Dheisheh camp, school officials said.
Education officials had been pressing the Israeli authorities to allow students to take end-of-year exams, they said.
The army agreed to lift the curfew on Bethlehem for three-and-a-half hours from 9:30 am (0630 GMT), but the students headed off to school earlier than expected and the troops opened fire, the sources said.
Later, two Palestinians were wounded by Israeli rubber bullets at a checkpoint north of Ramallah, Palestinian medical and security sources told AFP.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent said the men were trying to cross a checkpoint north of Ramallah towards the village of Surda when they were hit.
And Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement said troops abducted and later released a senior official, Mohammad Lutfi.
Lutfi is a member of Fatah's revolutionary council, as well as secretary general of the group's West Bank operations and director of the Palestinian interior ministry.
Alarmed by the rapid escalation of violence in the Middle East, European Union leaders prepared to issue a statement Saturday calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.
"The objective is an end to the (Israeli) occupation and the early establishment of a democratic, viable, peaceful and sovereign Palestinian state," according to a draft statement from an EU summit in Spain.
Rubber bullets, heck, they should be using something more permanent.
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