NABLUS, Nov 13: Israeli forces took over this northern West Bank town on Wednesday, arresting at least 30 Palestinians in retaliation for a deadly attack on a kibbutz, as Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stepped up pressure for Yasser Arafat’s expulsion.
The incursion came a day after an Israeli raid on Tulkarem refugee camp, not far from Kibbutz Metzer, the collective farm in northern Israel where five Israelis, two of them children, were killed on Sunday.
More than 150 armoured vehicles backed by helicopter gunships entered Nablus from the east and west before daybreak, moving towards the centre of town under covering fire without meeting any serious resistance, Palestinian sources said.
“Our forces intervened overnight in the West Bank, notably in Nablus and neighbouring refugee camps, as well as in Bir Zeit” north of Ramallah, the army said in a statement.
Palestinian sources said two of the 30 suspects Israel said it had arrested were wanted members of the Hamas captured in Askar refugee camp.
Within an hour of the incursion, the Israelis had complete control of Nablus, while its casbah, the old town, was circled by tanks.
Israeli forces have stormed Nablus several time since April, each time pulling back to its edge and imposing a curfew on the city of more than 100,000 people.
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has given his troops as much time as needed to hunt down militants, basing the operation on an two-week hunt in Jenin that ended on Saturday with the killing of a top Islamic Jihad militant accused of killing 31 Israelis.
“The soldiers received a mandate to operate for as long as necessary to destroy the infrastructures of Palestinian terrorist organizations following very many alerts of attacks planned from these sectors,” Israeli public radio said.
Sunday’s kibbutz killings were claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement. On Tuesday, the army said it destroyed the house outside Tulkarem of the alleged organizer of the attack, a member of Fatah.
In another raid on Wednesday, Israeli helicopter gunships hit Gaza City, targeting a metal workshop which Israel says was used for maunfacturing weapons.
Tuesday’s raid on Tulkarem was the first time the new right-wing caretaker government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had to decide on military action since the Labour party, seen as a moderating influence, walked out of a broad-based coalition on Oct 30.
But the same constraints — US demands for calm before its anticipated war on Iraq and the fact that the whole West Bank has already been reoccupied since June — appeared to have stayed the government’s hand, despite rising calls for Arafat to be banished.
Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told a right-wing Likud party convention in Tel Aviv on Tuesday that he would build his election platform on expelling the Palestinian leader.
He repeated his demand in a security cabinet meeting on Wednesday, public radio said.
Arafat, still effectively trapped in his Ramallah offices after almost a year of being isolated by Sharon, scoffed at the threat.
“He must know I am Yasser Arafat, this is my land, the land of my great, great-great-great-grandfather,” he told reporters.
But Sharon, who now plays the unlikely role of the government’s leading moderate, came out on top in a showdown with his rival and appears to be firmly in control of his party with its 300,000 members poised to choose their new leader during the Nov 28 primaries.
Opinion polls are close but show Sharon slightly ahead.
The latest violence further complicates US State Department envoy David Satterfield’s mission to the region, aimed at discussing a new “roadmap” for peace with both parties and regional players.—AFP