Posted on 08/02/2002 12:24:27 PM PDT by Polar Bear
Men aged 15-50 are being rounded up
The Israeli army has stormed into the West Bank city of Nablus, declaring it a closed military zone and rounding up Palestinian men.
Two Palestinians were killed as soldiers, backed by more than 100 tanks, poured into the city in retaliation for Wednesday's bomb attack at a Jerusalem university.
The BBC's Jeremy Cooke, who is in Nablus, saw men between the ages of 15 and 50 being blindfolded and bound by Israeli troops before being taken away in a waiting bus.
He says the whole city is under Israeli control and the Casbah, or Old City, appears to be the focus of current operations.
Soldiers are reported to be carrying out house-to-house searches in the narrow alleyways of the old quarter, smashing through connecting walls to avoid exposing themselves to Palestinian fighters in the streets.
Israel has said the operation is aimed at rooting out militants from the Hamas network.
The group claimed responsibility for the campus bombing which killed seven people, five of them US nationals.
On Friday, a senior political figure in Hamas, Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, said his organisation was not deliberately targeting Americans.
Bomb factories
The army said that two explosives laboratories had been uncovered in the early hours of its operation, Reuters reported.
Israel's internal security service is reported to believe that the bomb used at the Hebrew University was prepared in a workshop in the Old City.
Local residents described scenes of chaos as the army moved in the early hours.
"Dozens of tanks, APCs and bulldozers joined other troops and were shooting in all directions," May Fataier told the Associated Press.
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The Old City in Nablus was the focus of operations |
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"I heard someone screaming and went out of the house and a soldier opened fire at me and I was injured," she said.
Israeli forces also went into the neighbouring village of Salem and shot dead a member of Hamas.
In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian was reportedly killed in a gun battle with Israeli troops at Rafah near the border with Egypt.
An elderly Palestinian woman was also killed on Friday by Israeli fire near the Kissufim crossing in the southern Gaza Strip. The army said it was looking into the incident.
Expulsions and demolitions
As part of the continuing crackdown on militants, Israel's attorney general has approved the expulsion from the West Bank to Gaza of two relatives of Palestinians who carried out attacks against Israeli civilians.
Israel says the men facing expulsion - Gaza Kifah Adjuri, 28, from Askar refugee camp, and Abdel Nasser Assidi, 34, from the village of Tel - knew about the planned attacks but did nothing to prevent them.
Lawyers for the men told Reuters news agency they would appeal against the order to a military court sitting later on Friday. They can also appeal to Israel's Supreme Court.
Israel says the policy of expulsions is meant to deter would-be suicide bombers from carrying out attacks if they know their families might suffer.
Last month, Israel arrested 19 relatives of suicide bombers and threatened to expel them, but the attorney general blocked the move.
Israel is also implementing its new policy of destroying homes belonging to the families of suicide bombers.
In Hebron, troops blew up a house belonging to the family of a Palestinian who killed two Israelis in an attack in Jerusalem last November, the army said.
In Tulkarm, soldiers destroyed the house of a member of Hamas who killed three Israelis in an attack in the coastal city of Netanya in March 2001.
The lying SOB must think that we are all idiots. There was no question that Americans would be the main guests at the reception to welcome students from other countries. The Arabs continue to live up to their stereo-typical reputation as liars.
Eh, kill him and be done with it (though he's probably doubling as a personal "Palestinian day-care center" right now).
The army should ignore the attorney general because this is in the concern of "national security".
The song "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash is back on the charts!
Kill them all and disembowel their organization. If not now...then when?
Retaliation is artilery, invasion and arrest is police work. If it ever gets to retaliation, the war will be over in a few days. 100 tanks "pouring into the city in retaliation" don't kill 2. Two thousand perhaps, but not two. Heck, if you ever get a chance to drive a tank or a bulldozer you would realize that when driving a hundred of them through crowded city streets, they are lucky they did not run over a couple of people. The Media needs to get a clue someday, but I will not hold my breath.
If they are allowed to live that long. I wonder which military court they are going to appeal to, the Israel court which might be a little prejudiced, or a pali court, which has absolutely no authority in this or any other case.
The IDF should just save themselves some time. The old "shot while trying to escape" solution.
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