Israelis get ready to strike into Palestinian territory

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, August 14, 2001

Associated Press

JERUSALEM – Israeli forces moved toward Bethlehem and nearby villages late Tuesday, Palestinian witnesses said, after gunmen fired at a Jewish neighborhood.

Palestinians said Israeli forces fired flares in the air over the village of Beit Jalla, and tanks and infantry were on the move nearby.

But Israeli forces had not entered Palestinian-controlled territory. Troop movements were also reported around Beit Sahour in the West Bank.

Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz denied a report on army radio that Israeli forces had entered Beit Jalla. “There is no deployment and no movement in Palestinian territories. Reports to the contrary have no basis,” he said.

There has been an upsurge in military activity in the wake of two suicide bomb attacks over the past week against Israelis that left 17 dead and scores injured.

Early Tuesday, Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled into Jenin in the northern West Bank, destroyed the police headquarters building and withdrew, retaliating for Palestinian suicide bombing attacks. Several of the bombers lived in the Jenin area.

Just after daybreak Tuesday, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo, in a disputed part of Jerusalem. Police said 11 apartments were damaged and one Israeli was slightly hurt. Israeli forces returned the fire.

Palestinians appealed to the United Nations for international monitors in the Mideast, while radical Palestinian groups threatened more suicide bombings.

“If (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon is going to escalate by invading cities, I believe that the Palestinians will escalate their resistance,” said Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a leader of Hamas, the Islamic movement that has carried out the deadliest bomb attacks in Israel.

“It is important for the Security Council to act,” Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian U.N. observer, said in New York. “It should have acted months ago.”

Speaking at police headquarters in Jerusalem, Sharon warned that unless the terrorist attacks stop, “the Palestinians will lose additional assets, and they have something to lose,” noting that Israel already took over Orient House, the PLO headquarters in Jerusalem.

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