AIDA REFUGEE CAMP (West Bank), Nov 24: “Who lives here?” asks the Israeli army officer, backed up by half a dozen soldiers carrying out house-to-house searches in Bethlehem’s Aida refugee camp Sunday, building up what they call an “anti-terrorist” census.

Equipped with a map of the neighbourhood, the soldiers establish a list of the sector’s residents who are called on to present their identity cards to the army, which reoccupied the self-rule town early Friday after a suicide bomber from Bethlehem killed 11 in occupied Al Quds.

The curfew imposed since then on the town, which had just enjoyed three months free of occupation, makes the soldiers’ task simpler.

The information thus gathered is scrupulously noted down on lists marked in Hebrew with the words “Chain Reaction,” the name of the military offensive that was launched in reprisal for Thursday’s suicide blast on a packed rush hour bus in Jerusalem.

The army quit Bethlehem on Aug 19 under a deal whereby Palestinian security forces would prevent further anti-Israeli attacks, but that understanding collapsed after last week’s suicide bombing.

Israel said that in the intervening three months Bethlehem became a “terrorist sanctuary” and Israeli forces were blamed for the death of a Palestinian militant in October who was killed when the phone booth he was using exploded.

“It’s the first time in years that the soldiers have used this kind of inquiry to keep better tabs on us,” says one fatalistic inhabitant of the camp, asking not to be named.

The aim of the operation is officially to arrest dozens of wanted “terrorists” and to “destroy their infrastructures.”

Carrying out this census, the army hopes, will allow it to spot those who are hiding out in this shanty town refugee camp.

The soldiers look into every nook and cranny.

“Who owns this shed?” asks one of the troops after checking the identities of the adults and teenagers in a three-storey house at the end of muddy ally strewn with household trash.

Nearby, soldiers in an armoured troop transporter mounted with a machinegun are ready to intervene if their colleagues stumble on to any of the elusive militants.

However, the search goes on in calm, under the placid gaze of children peering from windows and rooftops.

Some of the more daring youngsters come out of their houses despite the curfew while peering around to make sure no Israeli soldiers are near. The adults quickly pull them back indoors.

Several hundred metres away, Israeli troops block the roads leading toward Manger Square in the city centre, home to the Church of the Nativity, which Christians revere as the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

Troops deployed in front of a tank parked underneath a huge cross — Bethlehem has a predominantly Christian population — gesture at approaching journalists to turn back.

The army is preventing anyone entering the city centre to avoid a repeat of last spring’s protracted siege of the church when scores of wanted Palestinian militants and gunmen took shelter in the historical basilica.

After more than a month of a controversial stand-off, the Palestinians gave themselves up last May, with 13 being sent into exile in Europe under a US-brokered deal to end the confrontation in one of Christianity’s holiest shrines.—AFP