Friday, 19 July 2002

Israeli Terrorism

Occupation Forces Blow Up Homes and Arrest 25 Family Members, Nablus

Israeli Invasion and Campaign of Arrests in Khan Younis

Israeli Army Continues Campaign of Raids and Arrests in West Bank

Washington Decides to Push Peace Process Forward and Review its Position on Arafat

Ha'aretz Correspondent Aluf Benn reached a wishful thinking conclusion on the results of the meeting of the Quartet (US, Russia, UN, EU) in New York held two days ago and the meeting between President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell with the three Arab Foreign Ministers Maher, al-Faisal and Mu'asher. Benn considered that the only result is to bypass chairman Arafat of the PA, which in fact, is completely erroneous.

The Quartet meeting held in New York (Powell, Annan, Solana and Ivanov) showed clearly that the position expressed by President Bush on 24 June, which implicitly called for bypassing Arafat, is a point of difference between UN, EU, Russia and the USA. The three parties of the Quartet had explicitly refused Bush's insinuation to bypass Arafat.

One day later, during the meetings held with President Bush and later with Colin Powell, the Foreign Ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt expressed optimism and clearly stated that the issues discussed did not touch on the old view of Bush, attempting to impose a new leadership on the Palestinians. Actually, Colin Powell publicly and bluntly declared a US review of its opinion by saying that it is up to the Palestinian people to decide and that the Americans realized that Arafat is regarded by the Palestinians as their elected leader.

In any case, what is important is to focus on the practical results of these two meetings. Informed sources told `Hear Palestine' the most important issues agreed upon during the Bush-Arab ministers meeting are the following:

1) President Bush admitted for the first time that both Israelis and Palestinians had committed mistakes. This is the first time in which Bush does not blame the Palestinians only for the deterioration of the situation.

2) President Bush agreed that the security, economic and political paths should go together in a synchronized manner.

3) President Bush promised to use his influence to ask the Israelis to pull out of Palestinian West Bank cities, towns and villages in order to enable the Palestinians to go back to normal life and to prepare for elections.

4) President Bush agreed to a proposal put forward by the Arab ministers on a mechanism to achieve the pull out of Israeli troops and the replacement by Palestinian security forces under the observation of committees headed by the CIA and composed of Egyptian, Jordanian and European intelligence officers (the informed source was not sure whether other Arab countries will be involved).

5) Secretary of State Colin Powell who said after the New York meeting of the Quartet that optimism must not be exaggerated and that any move might take 2 to 3 weeks of preparation amended his opinion after the Washington Bush-ministers meeting by saying the security envoys headed by the CIA would start their contacts as soon as possible with both Israelis and Palestinians.

The informed source told `Hear Palestine' that George Tenet together with a group of CIA officers would visit the area before the end of the month. The group of officers would join CIA officers already located in the region to observe the ceasefire and the pullout of Israeli forces from the West Bank. Also, because of the agreement that the political negotiations must go in parallel with security and economic negotiations, William Burns will be in the region at the same time.

Israeli Terrorism

Occupation Forces Blow Up Homes and Arrest 25 Family Members, Nablus

Israeli Occupation Military forces at dawn today blew up 4 homes in Balata and Askar refugee camps and nearby Tel village and arrested families of wanted Palestinians and those who carried out operations against Israel with an aim of exiling them to Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers arrested around 25 civilians, mostly from Asida and al-Ajouri families, in preparation for exile.

In Askar refugee camp, Israeli occupation soldiers blew up the home of al-Ajouri family, before arresting all family members. 4 surrounding homes were also completely demolished in the process and at least 10 other houses damaged.

Two homes were demolished in Tel town, west of Nablus. A large number of Israeli military forces invaded the town at 11:00 pm last night, imposed a curfew on the residents and besieged 3 homes that belong to the Asida family. These homes and surrounding homes were evacuated and members of Zeidan and Asida families arrested (13 people). 

Before withdrawing from the village at 4:00 am, Israeli soldiers blew up the Asida family home. The ancient house was turned into rubble. Dozens of surrounding homes were also damaged in the attack.

Israeli Invasion and Campaign of Arrests in Khan Younis

The Israeli army at dawn today invaded Qeizan al-Najjar area, south of Khan Younis and waged a wide-scale campaign of home raids and arrests. Witnesses reported that 3 tanks, 2 armored vehicles and a number of military jeeps invaded the area from a nearby settlement and Israeli occupation military forces arrested several people during brutal home raids.

At the same time, the Israeli army invaded al-Qarara town, north of Khan Younis, under intense fire and carried out a campaign of home raids.

Israeli Army Continues Campaign of Raids and Arrests in West Bank

The Israeli army at dawn today invaded Kober village, northwest Ramallah. Israeli Special Forces raided several homes and arrested at least 4 residents. Witnesses reported that Israeli military forces also opened fire randomly towards homes in the village during the invasion.

The Israeli army also carried out a wide-scale campaign of arrests in Doura and Tuffah village in Hebron.