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Gaza strip { May 10 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62952-2002May9.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62952-2002May9.html
Israeli Forces Move Toward Gaza
Five-Week Standoff Ends as Palestinians Begin Leaving Church in Bethlehem
By Lee Hockstader and Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, May 10, 2002; Page A01
JERUSALEM, May 9 -- Israeli forces prepared today to launch an assault on the Gaza Strip in response to a suicide bombing Tuesday, massing tanks near Palestinian-ruled territory there and issuing emergency call-up notices to army reservists.
[As Israeli forces were poised on the edge of Gaza, Palestinians early Friday trickled out of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, putting an end to a five-week siege by Israeli forces.
[The first Palestinians to leave were 13 gunmen, who were to be flown to Cyprus and then exiled to other countries. They were followed a short while later by 26 other Palestinians, who were loaded on buses that took them to the Gaza Strip. Eighty-four others, including foreign activists, were to come out late Friday morning. The Israeli army has indicated it would withdraw from Bethlehem once the process is completed.]
Israeli officials said the operation in Gaza would be more narrowly targeted than last month's punishing offensive in the West Bank, which killed scores of Palestinians. But they acknowledged it was also potentially more complicated.
An enclave of coastal land wedged in between Egypt, Israel and the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza is one of the most densely populated places in the world. About 1.1 million people live on 147 square miles, many in impoverished refugee camps that harbor militant groups.
Anticipating an attack, residents of Gaza City thronged bakeries and grocery stores today, stocking up on food and supplies. Militants in Gaza have said they will resist the Israelis and have set booby traps, mines and roadside bombs.
"They're coming tonight -- boom-boom!" said a teenage boy walking down a street in Gaza City this evening. "We'll be killed, and they say we're the ones who are criminals."
Israel blames the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, for the bombing Tuesday that killed 15 Israelis at a pool hall near Tel Aviv. Military analysts said today that Hamas leaders and installations would probably be among the main targets of the Gaza attacks. But it was unclear which Hamas installations would fall under what Israel calls the "infrastructure of terror."
Hamas has weapons caches and a handful of political offices in Gaza, and its main leaders are there. But it also has a large number of civilian installations -- food warehouses, welfare centers, clinics and schools -- that support the local population. One of the two largest universities in Gaza, Islamic University, is heavily influenced by the group.
Previous Israeli attacks in Gaza have concentrated on offices of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, including Arafat's own seaside compound, as well as police and security compounds. An Israeli strike on Hamas-run projects for civilians could have a devastating impact on Gaza's residents.
Although Gaza is a focal point for Palestinian militancy, it has posed only a limited threat to Israel in the course of the last 19 months of fighting. The strip is surrounded by Israeli forces and separated from Israel by an electronic security fence that is very difficult to cross.
If the pool hall bomber came from Gaza, as some Israeli reports have suggested, it would be the first such attack inside Israel during the current uprising to have originated there.
Ismail Haniya, a Hamas official in Gaza, appealed on television this evening for Palestinians to fight back against any arriving Israeli forces.
But local militant groups and Palestinian Authority forces did not renew efforts undertaken last month to build sand barriers in the streets. The mood throughout the city seemed calm despite the mobilization of Israeli tanks around the edges of the strip.
The government gave the green light to more attacks after the suicide bombing Tuesday night. It is unclear whether the bomber's identity is known; unusually, the bomber's name was not released.
In Israel, the military confirmed it was calling up reservists but did not say how many. Government sources said it would be fewer than the 20,000 who were summoned for Operation Defensive Shield, the assault on six major Palestinian cities in the West Bank last month.
The call-up started early this morning, just hours after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's security cabinet, an inner cabinet of 14 that Sharon turns to for the most sensitive decisions, authorized new military operations. Reservists who serve in the army's Southern Command, which covers Gaza, received phone calls ordering them to report immediately to their units.
"Target Gaza," read a banner headline in Maariv, an Israeli newspaper.
The mobilization appeared to enjoy broad support in the Israeli government and among citizens. Hard-liners said Gaza should have been attacked last month along with the big cities in the West Bank. Even Shimon Peres, the dovish foreign minister, defended the widely expected offensive.
"We have to hurt the people who send the suicide bombers; we have to hit the explosives labs," he said. "It will be a very focused operation."
A small minority of dovish Israelis warned today that a military assault in Gaza could lead to a bloodbath.
"A large-scale incursion into Gaza, the most heavily populated area in the world . . . would invite another tragedy similar to what occurred in Jenin last month," said lawmaker Yossi Sarid, leader of the opposition in Israel's parliament, referring to the takeover of the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank during last month's offensive. "Terror must be fought, but not on the backs of the civilian population."
Palestinian Authority police arrested 16 Hamas militants based in Gaza, Palestinian sources said. They said the arrests were carried out because of orders issued Wednesday by Arafat to fight terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, a declaration broadcast on Palestinian television.
The people arrested were lower-level Hamas followers, according to Ismail Abu Shenab, a senior Hamas political leader. Abu Shenab and other Hamas leaders based in Gaza City spent a large part of the day giving interviews about the likelihood of an Israeli attack, then dropped out of sight to complicate any attempt to take them into custody.
"Everybody is concerned, because when Israel entered Jenin, they attacked all kinds of people," Abu Shenab said.
Hamas has staged dozens of attacks on Israelis in the past year and a half. Its leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, has vowed to keep up pressure. Many Hamas militants denounce Arafat's decision to seek formation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel as a sell-out. Hamas sources declined to say whether Yassin intends to hide from the expected attack, noting that the Islamic scholar is well known, sickly and uses a wheelchair.
Cody reported from Gaza City. Correspondent Doug Struck in Bethlehem contributed to this report.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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