The Washington Post And Associated Press
DEHEISHE REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank — Under a blazing sun and the suspicious gaze of flak-jacketed Israeli troops, the Palestinian boys and men of Deheishe refugee camp shuffled forward, five at a time, their hands laced behind their heads.
"I’m so scared," 17-year-old Mohammed Abu Sdoud said as he moved forward in the line.
About 1,100 Palestinians were detained Monday in Dheisheh in Bethlehem and the West Bank town of Qalqilya, part of an Israeli army effort to track down militants suspected of involvement in violence.
Soldiers moved in Deheishe early Monday and announced over loudspeakers that all males between the ages of 15 and 45 must come to the schoolyard with their hands over the heads.
Soldiers ordered the hundreds of men to empty their pockets and put coins and keys and their belts into plastic bags. Then they were told to strip down to their undershirts before they put their hands on their heads, waiting in a line to be handcuffed, blindfolded and photographed.
"Surrender peacefully and you will soon be returning to your homes in good health," the soldiers announced. "If not you may be hurt."
About 500 were detained in Dheisheh and 600 in Qalqilya, the army said. Over the weekend, about 1,000 Palestinians were detained in the Tulkarem refugee camp; all but 40 were later released.
Last week in Tulkarem, some detainees said soldiers used markers to write three-digit numbers on their arms and foreheads. One photograph showed a detainee who had just been released with a large number written across his forearm.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat equated the action with the treatment of Jews in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, when numbers were tattooed on the arms of prisoners as a means of identification.
"Isn’t this the sort of thing they used to say the Nazis did against the Jews? So what do they say about these things? Isn’t this a new Nazi racism?" Arafat said Monday on Abu Dhabi Television.
An Israeli army spokesman called Arafat’s remark an "obscene and absurd statement."
The Al Aqsa Brigades, which is affiliated with Arafat’s Fatah movement and has carried out many recent attacks, said it would strike at Israel because of the detentions.
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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