Wednesday, Mar 13, 2002
Wednesday, Mar 13, 2002 |
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Gaza/Ramallah, March 12. Continuing its largest offensive against the Palestinians since the start of the intifada (uprising), Israeli troops took over most of the West Bank city of Ramallah today, Palestinians and Israel said. A total of 26 Palestinians were killed in the offensive, which began late on Monday night with an Israeli army thrust deep into the northern Gaza Strip. Two other Palestinians were killed earlier as the army began its incursion into the West Bank city, the centre of Palestinian cultural, political and economic activity in the West Bank. Also today, Israeli troops killed four accused militants near Netzarim, in the Gaza Strip. Israel Radio said the four had fired mortars at an Israeli settlement in the northern Gaza Strip. Attempting to justify the Ramallah attack, an Israeli Army statement described the city as ``a major centre of terrorist activity against Israeli civilians and security personnel'' and added that ``the city has become the capital of Palestinian terrorism, from which many terrorist attacks have emanated". Reports from the beleaguered city said Israeli troops had reoccupied nearly all of Ramallah, its suburbs of El-Bireh and Bitunya and the adjacent refugee camp of Amari, sparking heavy fighting and killing two Palestinians in the Ramallah compound housing Mr. Arafat's bureau, witnesses said. The troops arrested 30 Palestinians in El-Bireh. But in Amari, dozens of suspected militants fled to central Ramallah. Bulldozers destroyed the home of Wafa Idrisi, the woman suicide bomber who blew herself up in Jerusalem late January. The Israeli offensive began shortly before midnight local time last night when more than 30 Israeli army tanks, armoured vehicles and bulldozers thrust deep into the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 18 Palestinians and wounding 50 others, nine of them seriously, Palestinian security officials and eyewitnesses said. The troops withdrew on Tuesday morning after blowing up a Kassam-2 rocket production site and the home of a Palestinian militant who had attacked a Tel Aviv restaurant last week. Israeli troops occupying the foothills of the Golan Heights shelled Lebanese land for the second consecutive day today, witnesses said. However, the Israeli army denied the report. Witnesses said Israeli troops stationed in the disputed Shebaa Farms area had fired several mortar rounds at hilly areas on the outskirts of the Lebanese village of Kfar Shouba, which lies close to the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties. An Israeli army spokesperson in Jerusalem said, ``It is completely untrue. We do not shell into Lebanese territory.'' ``The Hizbollah is using this as a provocation to try to drag us into a conflict,'' she said. The Syrian and Iranian-backed Hizbollah movement, which helped end Israel's 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in May 2000, has vowed to drive Israel from the Shebaa Farms and has attacked Israeli soldiers in the area since. Israeli troops occasionally fire shells or machine guns into the Lebanese side to ward off potential infiltration by Hizbollah guerillas. — DPA, Reuters
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