A rchive Date
[ 23-02-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Israel ]
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[http://canoe.ca/Canoe/canoecnews.html
Israel pulls out of Jenin
By JAMIE TARABAY - The Associated Press
Friday, Apr. 19, 2002
JENIN, West Bank (AP) - Israel completed its pullback from Jenin Friday, Israel Radio reported, posting forces on the outskirts of the West Bank town and allowing residents to search for relatives in a devastated refugee camp. A U.N. envoy said the incursion caused "colossal suffering."
The withdrawal winds up a three-week operation that included a bloody battle in the camp. The Israeli military had no immediate comment, but military commanders had said earlier the withdrawal would be completed on Friday.
Brig. Gen. Eyal Schlein, the Israeli army's Jenin division commander, said Thursday that his forces had destroyed the "infrastructure - explosive labs, organization heads, and also terrorists," But he told Israel TV, "The attacks will continue - we haven't achieved any cease-fire."
President Bush said Thursday in Washington that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was keeping his promise to withdraw and was on schedule.
"He gave me a timetable and he met the timetable," Bush said. He dismissed assessments that Secretary of State Colin Powell's Mideast mission, which ended Wednesday without a cease-fire, had failed, and said the United States would continue to pursue a truce.
In Gaza early Friday, Israeli troops moved briefly into Palestinian-controlled territory near the border with Egypt, scene of frequent clashes and incursions. Palestinian doctors said two people were killed by Israeli gunfire. Israeli military sources said that during a routine operation, Palestinians shot at soldiers, who returned the fire.
Also Friday, Army Radio reported that Israeli tanks moved into the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, describing the operation as a pinpoint mission, not occupation of the town. The military had no immediate comment.
Near Nablus, the Israeli military said it captured Husam Ataf Ali Badran, a leader of the Hamas militant organization who the army said was responsible for the deaths of more than 100 Israelis in some of the worst suicide bombings in the last year.
He reportedly had a hand in the March 27 Passover suicide bombing in Netanya that triggered the Israeli drive into Palestinian cities and towns. An army statement said his capture "is a significant blow" to Hamas. Witnesses said he was captured and three others were killed in a raid by helicopters firing rockets and machine guns outside the village of Beit Hassan.
Touring the Jenin camp Thursday, U.N. Mideast envoy Terje Larsen was harshly critical of the Israelis, though he would not take sides on the hottest disagreement - Palestinian charges that Israeli soldiers massacred hundreds of civilians in the camp, while Israel maintained that most of the dead were gunmen or bombers.
He said about 300 buildings were destroyed and 2,000 people were left homeless in the Israeli operation to capture or kill armed militants.
"Not any objective can justify such action, with colossal suffering" to civilians, said Roed-Larsen, wearing a blue flak jacket and walking over a broad swathe of pulverized concrete where hundreds of people once lived.
Residents found the remains of two bodies and said one of them appeared to be that of Mahmoud Tawalbeh, the regional leader of militant Islamic Jihad. He had admitted sending suicide bombers to Israel, among them his younger brother. On April 11, Israel reported it believed its forces killed Tawalbeh.
So far, 30 bodies have been found in Jenin. The Palestinians accuse Israel of a massacre in the camp, but Israel says fewer than 100 people were killed, most of them militants. Israel lost 23 soldiers in the operation. The Israelis blame the Palestinians for the carnage, saying militants refused warnings to evacuate and then booby-trapped themselves and buildings.
Col. Miri Eisen of the military spokesman's office said earlier that with the completion of the withdrawal, Israeli forces would take up positions just outside, preventing Palestinians from entering or leaving. Palestinians have demanded that Israel remove all its roadblocks, but Eisen said they are necessary to prevent further attacks.
In Bethlehem, a meeting to negotiate a peaceful evacuation of the 250 people in the church, including many gunmen and about 50 clergymen, was canceled, said Mayor Hanna Nasser.
The sound of gunfire and stun grenades could be heard late Thursday near the church, and smoke rose from the compound. The Israeli military said gunmen in the church opened fire, and soldiers responded. The military has banned reporters from the area.
Powell described the siege of the church and the isolation of Arafat in Ramallah as key obstacles to a cease-fire agreement.
Powell's deputy for the Mideast, William Burns, arrived in Cairo on Thursday to follow up on the weeklong Powell trip, saying the first priority was to complete the Israeli withdrawal.
After that, he said, the United States hoped to arrange security consultations between the Israelis and Palestinians. Officials in Washington said CIA Director George Tenet would be in the region soon, perhaps by next week, to try to set up the Israeli-Palestinian talks.
In Ramallah, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was visited by Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher and got a checkup from his neurologist, Dr. Ashraf al-Kurdi, who said Arafat was in good health.
Several years ago, Arafat developed tremors in his lower lip that doctors called a nervous tic. Media reports have speculated he suffers from Parkinson's disease, a degenerative neurological disease.
Arafat "is in high spirits, although his compound has been turned into a battlefield," Muasher said after returning to Amman, the Jordanian capital.
Sharon told Powell Israeli troops would complete their withdrawal from occupied West Bank towns by the end of the week, except for the siege around the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah, where Israel says wanted men are holed up.
During a visit to a hospital on Thursday, Sharon repeated Israel's readiness to take part in a regional peace conference he first proposed during the Powell visit.
"When we will reach a cease-fire we, of course, will be happy to enter a peace process with a coalition, a coalition of peace with Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and perhaps Morocco and the Palestinians. That's not the situation today, but I hope we will reach this situation," Sharon said.
He also said, "Israel cannot accept international forces here," although he previously suggested he would allow U.S. observers to be stationed in the area. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for an armed international peacekeeping force to separate the two sides.
In Jenin, Roed-Larsen, the U.N. envoy, urged Israel to withdraw and immediately allow professional teams to search for survivors. "Corpses were being dug up just below the surface and the stench is terrible," the Norwegian said. "This is horrifying beyond belief. Just seeing this area, it looks like there's been an earthquake here."
Danny Ayalon, Sharon's chief foreign policy adviser, denied Israel had blocked relief efforts. "We have tried all along to work with the Palestinians to bury the dead, but the Palestinians refused," Ayalon said.
Hundreds of residents picked through the debris, pulling out mattresses and packing suitcases with salvaged clothes and other possessions. One woman found a functioning television in her gutted bedroom.
Yehya Hindi, with the shaggy look of a man unable to wash or shave for days, used a shove to pick through what had been the roof of his second-floor bedroom. He pulled out a stack of his son's school reports.
Hindi, 42, and his family hid in the house for six days, and had taken shelter in the basement when the first floor was blown away. After that, they fled.
"It would have been better to have stayed inside," said his brother Zaki, 36. "It would have been better to be dead and buried."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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