Israeli troops move into Palestinian section of Hebron

By Nasser Shiyoukhi

Associated Press

HEBRON, West Bank – Israeli troops and tanks moved into the Palestinian-controlled section of the West Bank city of Hebron at daybreak Friday, killing at least five Palestinians and indicating cease-fire efforts were over.

Soldiers clamped a curfew on the two neighborhoods, suggesting they might not leave quickly, even though the military said the operation was for a “limited period.”

The move came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon responded angrily to a string of Palestinian attacks, including a gunman disguised as an Israeli soldier who opened fire on a bus station, killing three Israelis.

Charging that the Palestinians had sabotaged all truce efforts, Sharon said, “From now on we will count only on ourselves.” He said his Cabinet had authorized the military to take whatever steps were necessary to protect Israeli citizens.

Also Friday, an Israeli was killed in a Palestinian shooting attack near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Avnei Hefetz, near the Palestinian town of Tulkarem, the military said.

Israeli forces took control of the Abu Sneineh and Haret a-Sheikh neighborhoods overlooking three Israeli enclaves in the divided city. Israel controls about 20 percent of Hebron, guarding 500 settlers living among 130,000 Palestinians.

Five Palestinians were killed and 12 wounded in exchanges of gunfire during the incursion. Advancing tanks fired machine guns and shells, witnesses said. Palestinian security officials said two of those killed were gunmen and the others were civilians killed by a tank shell.

Hundreds of people, many of them in tears, gathered at Hebron’s hospital, where the casualties were taken. A young man holding an assault rifle covered his face with an Arab headdress to conceal his identity. He said one of the dead was a neighbor. “We will continue resistance until the last settler leaves Hebron,” he said.

Abbas Zaki, a Palestinian leader in Hebron, denounced the Israeli incursion. “It is a new crime by the Sharon government,” he said. “We will fight against this incursion, and we are calling on the world to provide international protection for the Palestinian people.”

The Israeli military said the incursion was a response to constant Palestinian gunfire from hilltops at Jewish enclaves below, including attacks on crowds of Jews visiting the city to celebrate a Jewish holiday.

The renewed violence followed an apparently fruitless meeting Thursday between high-level officials from the two sides. The meeting was aimed at implementing a truce announced on Sept. 26 after intense U.S. pressure to cool down the conflict before it interferes with efforts to build a coalition to fight international terrorism.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met with two top Palestinian negotiators, Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qureia and Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat. But the session degenerated into mutual accusations of truce violations, both sides said.

Minutes after the meeting, a Palestinian gunman wearing an Israeli army uniform opened fire at the central bus station in Afula, an Israeli city just across the line from the West Bank city of Jenin, killing three Israelis.

Relatives said they recognized the picture of the gunman published in a Palestinian newspaper. They said he was Natheer Abu Hamad, 27, from Araqa village near Jenin. He was married with two small daughters and did not belong to a political movement, his brother said.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Palestinians fired at Israelis visiting the city and its disputed holy site, the traditional burial cave of the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. On Wednesday, two women were wounded.

Since fighting erupted on Sept. 28, 2000, 670 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 183 on the Israeli side.