Israel says no time set for troop pullout: More areas occupied
TEL AVIV, April 11: The Israeli army, under US pressure to end a West Bank offensive, launched fresh raids into two Palestinian towns and a refugee camp on Thursday, but claimed it had withdrawn from dozens of other places in the past 24 hours.
Just hours before US Secretary of State Colin Powell was due to arrive in Israel on a peace mission, the army said its forces swept into the towns of Bir Zeit and Dahariya and the Ein Beit Elma refugee camp, making arrests and seizing weapons.
Palestinian witnesses said troops ordered students out of their dormitories at Bir Zeit University, the West Bank’s largest university and a stronghold of nationalism, and detained several students. Soldiers also imposed a curfew and seized the town’s main government building.
The raids were part of a 13-day-old military campaign launched by Israel on March 29 after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 27 Israelis in a seaside hotel. Israel has so far defied US pressure to end the offensive.
The army said it had pulled out of 24 towns and villages over the past day, but it gave no indication when it would withdraw from Palestinian cities and other areas it has occupied since the offensive began.
In Washington a senior Israeli diplomat said on Wednesday Israeli forces would not withdraw from Palestinian territories before inflicting as much damage as possible on “the terror infrastructure” because they knew they would not get another chance.
Alon Pinkas, Israeli consul general in New York, said in an interview on CNN that the Jewish state was doing its best to comply with demands from US President George Bush and Secretary Colin Powell to quit the territories.
“They understand perfectly well that this takes time but there won’t be another chance,” he said.
“We cannot withdraw now and get back in there in two weeks. The idea is to resume political negotiations at some point with some interlocutor after removing as much as the terror infrastructure as we possibly can.
“Doing that by going in, going out, going in, going out, is absolutely impossible,” Pinkas said.
“We are withdrawing,” Pinkas said. “We are not defying the (US) president, we will never defy the president.”
Bush has issued repeated calls for an immediate Israeli withdrawal, but set no deadline.
Pinkas said, in the last 48 hours, the Israeli government had shared with the Bush administration new evidence showing the magnitude of the problem Israel was facing.
US PRESSURE ON ARABS: The White House, saying Israel was continuing its withdrawal from Palestinian areas, called on Palestinians and Arabs on Wednesday to stop violent attacks against Israel.
President George W. Bush’s spokesman, Ari Fleischer, offered a cautious U.S. assessment of the claimed Israeli pullout from a number of Palestinian towns.
“The withdrawal the president called for is continuing,” he said.
“And now the Palestinian Authority and the Arab nations have to step up to their responsibilities to denounce terrorism, to disrupt terrorist financing and to stop the incitement to violence by state-owned media,” and to implement ceasefire and political settlement accords, Fleischer said.
“The responsibility is not Israel’s alone. All parties have responsibilities in the war on terrorism,” he said.
WARNING TO US CITIZENS: The US State Department on Wednesday warned Americans in the Middle East to be vigilant in case of violent anti-American demonstrations.
An announcement said the US government might offer free flights home for non-emergency staff and dependents at more of its embassies in the region.
“The Department of State is concerned about the potential for further violent responses in the region and elsewhere due to the ongoing crisis in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. These have included demonstrations with anti-American sentiment.
“The Department of State reminds Americans to remain vigilant with regard to their personal safety and to exercise caution,” it said.
Demonstrations against Israel and the United States have been taking place in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and Morocco over the last fortnight in protest over Israeli attacks on Palestinian towns.
