Clashes erupt as Israeli troops raid Nablus
Pastor Dale Morgan
Sunday February 25, 8:36 PM
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Clashes erupt as Israeli troops raid Nablus
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Israeli troops raided the northern West Bank town of Nablus on Sunday,
arresting 20 Palestinians and triggering clashes that left six people
wounded, security sources and witnesses said.
The Palestinians slammed the operation as an "outrageous aggression,"
warning that it could undermine stability in the region, and appealed to
the international community to intervene.
Israeli troops in dozens of jeeps and armoured vehicles rolled into the
centre of town early on Sunday, imposing a curfew and surrounding
several buildings and two hospitals, in what the military said was an
operation to find weapons caches and arrest wanted militants.
It was the largest Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank
since January 4, when four Palestinians were killed during a raid in
Ramallah, and the largest in Nablus in seven months.
Four Palestinians were lightly wounded by rubber bullets in the clashes,
medics said. The army said two soldiers were also lightly wounded.
"There were brief exchanges of fire and our forces also used rubber
bullets and tear gas to dispurse Palestinian demonstrators who had
thrown rocks at them," an army spokesman said.
In what Israeli army radio called an "unlimited" operation, troops
continued to conduct house-to-house searches in the early afternoon,
arresting 20 people, Palestinian security sources said.
The streets in Nablus's old city remained deserted, with many blocked,
as residents remained indoors, witnesses said. Shops were shuttered and
schools closed. Sounds of ocassional explosions were heard throughout
the day.
The army had distributed flyers in the town saying the raid was aimed at
arresting nine wanted people, security sources said.
"Our forces are operating in Nablus to discover caches of arms and
explosives and to arrest those responsible for attacks against Israel."
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's office slammed the raid as an
"outrageous aggression" and warned it could torpedo agreements reached
at a summit between Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier this month.
"This Israeli aggression... is aimed at sabotaging the Palestinian
agreement reached in Mecca to form a national unity government," it said
in a statement.
"We ask the international community and the Quartet to intervene
immediately to stop the Israeli aggression."
The Hamas-led Palestinian government also condemned the incursion.
"The international community should understand that Israel, with its
continuing aggressive policies in the Palestinian territories, is
threatening all chances of stability in the region," it said in a statement.
"The Palestinian government asks the international community to stop
Israeli crimes."
The army said that since the start of 2006 it had uncovered six covert
bomb manufacturing centres in Nablus.
Last July, Israel conducted a vast three-day operation in Nablus in
which it destroyed almost all the local Palestinian Authority headquarters.
The army said at the time that the raid, launched days after the start
of the war on Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, was aimed at flushing out
wanted gunmen including some suspected of connections to the Shiite
militant group.