Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002
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By Kesava Menon
A NEW FRONT: Israeli tanks roll into Hebron in the West Bank on Monday. — Reuters
Manama (Bahrain) April 29. Israeli tanks backed by helicopter gun ships have moved into the West Bank town of Hebron, imposing a curfew and making house-to-house searches for Palestinian militants. Nine Palestinians are reported to have been killed in the operation, which Israel says is in response to an attack on the nearby Jewish settlement of Adora on Saturday in which four Israelis were killed. The incursion came hours after Israel and the Palestinians accepted a U.S. plan to allow the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, to leave his besieged compound in Ramallah. In their reaction to the incursion into Hebron, Palestinians officials said it was just another indication of how the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, slammed shut the door on peace every time an opening was made. Israel has agreed to lift the siege on Mr. Arafat and allow him to move freely in the Palestinian territories. In exchange, the Palestinian Authority, which has six men wanted by Israel in its custody, agreed that these men would be kept in custody within Palestinian territory but under the guard of either U.S. or British security men. According to reports, the six men will be kept in a jail in Jericho and British security men are expected to arrive by tomorrow to take over guard duty. Israel had until now maintained that it would not lift the siege on Mr. Arafat unless the six men were handed over for trial. Hence, its acceptance of the U.S. plan is a climbdown. The presence of a foreign military force in the territories, even for a limited purpose, is seen as a blow to Israel's interests since it has opposed growing international demands for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force. A report in Israel's Ha'aretz daily newspaper said Mr. Sharon had accepted the Arafat compromise after the U.S. agreed to support Israel in its confrontation with the United Nations over the Jenin fact-finding mission. Israel has said it will not co-operate with the mission unless changes are made to its composition and mandate. The U.N. Security Council has given Israel until Monday to accept the mission as it stands. Israel fears that the fact-finding mission will hold a wide-ranging enquiry that will not be limited to establishing facts but finding specific faults. International human rights organisations that have visited Jenin say that while there is no evidence of a massacre of civilians (as claimed by the Palestinians), human rights violations that could amount to war crimes did take place during Israel's invasion of the camp.
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