TULKARM, May 2: Israeli tanks and troops raided the West Bank town of Tulkarm before dawn on Thursday, searching houses and mosques and making arrests, before pulling out, witnesses said.
The latest incursion took place just hours after Israeli forces ended their siege of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Palestinian witnesses and security sources said tanks and soldiers left three neighbourhoods of Tulkarm after arresting eight guerillas, mostly members of the Hamas.
The army said in a statement troops had entered an area in the southeastern part of Tulkarm and arrested five people suspected of involvement in attacks against Israelis.
Palestinian witnesses said troops held about a third of the town, which lies close to the dividing line between Israel and the West Bank, during the six-hour raid. They said tanks patrolled the streets while soldiers searched houses and two mosques.
Troops also briefly entered three villages in the area and made at least one arrest, witnesses said.
Israeli forces seized Tulkarm as part of a West Bank offensive launched on March 29.
Troops withdrew from Tulkarm on April 9 under heavy US pressure but launched a brief raid a week later.
TRAVEL GUARANTEE: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he cannot guarantee that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat would be allowed to return to the West Bank if he travelled abroad to consult Arab leaders.
Asked in an interview on ABC’s “Nightline” TV programme whether Arafat would be able to return if he left the country, Sharon said: “We are not giving any guarantees for that.
“We’re not asked to give any guarantees, we’re not going to give any guarantees.”
The Israeli prime minister said he would present a new peace plan and a security proposal that envisions a physical buffer between Israel and the West Bank when he meets U.S. President Bush in Washington.
“I’ll be presenting a plan, a serious plan, maybe the most serious that has been presented by now, how to reach peace in the Middle East, how to reach peace between us and the Palestinians,” Sharon said.
Sharon said he intended to create a buffer zone around the West Bank to stop “the penetration of terrorists to the heart of the country”.
He acknowledged his plan would be costly and said he would seek financial support from the United States.
“We’ll have to raise the issue because in order to build it — if we build it — it will help,” he said.
Sharon outlined details for a plan that calls for the placement of troops in part of the West Bank, along with fences and ditches on borders and security gates at vehicle crossings.
“We will have there all the needed technical devices to see if they are carrying ... explosives, weapons, things like that,” he said.
Sharon said Israel did not intend to interfere with the movement of people in the region. But he added: “They will have to cross in places where we can check them.”
Asked about a New York Times report that Bush will ask him again for assurances that all Israeli forces will be pulled out of the West Bank and Gaza, Sharon responded: “I think that will have to be discussed.”
Maintaining a hard line, Sharon said he would continue to move troops in and out of West Bank cities.—Reuters