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Houses destroyed { August 2 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35026-2002Aug2.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35026-2002Aug2.html
Six Palestinians Killed in Clashes
Israeli Forces Arrest Over 50, Destroy Houses
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, August 2, 2002; 3:39 PM
NABLUS, West Bank, Aug. 2 - Hundreds of Israeli troops backed by as many a 150 armored vehicles blitzed into Nablus early today and put a noose around the Old City, searching for Palestinian fighters and groups believed to be connected with recent attacks against civilians in Israel.
At least three Palestinians were killed and five were injured when Israeli tanks, armored personnel carriers and bulldozers punched into the city about 2 a.m. and took up positions around the Old City. The area is a well-known haven for Palestinian militants, who have long used its maze of covered, twisting allies with narrow stone walkways and arches to elude Israeli security forces.
The operation here was accompanied by other Israeli military actions that left another three Palestinians dead in the Gaza Strip, including an 85-year-old woman and a 9-year-old girl, according to Palestinian officials.
Israeli military officials said that Nablus was targeted because the men and materials from several recent attacks were traced back to here, including Wednesday's bombing at Hebrew University, which killed seven people, including five Americans. They said that investigators believe that the bomb used in that attack - which was detonated remotely, perhaps using a cellular telephone - was assembled in Nablus, a stronghold of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the bombing. The city is also considered the birthplace of the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group that has carried out many suicide bombings.
Soldiers doing building-to-building searches in the city center found two explosive laboratories and destroyed them with controlled blasts, an Israeli army spokesman said. A statement by the military said the labs contained pipe bombs, gas containers, gunpowder, ammunition, electronic activation mechanisms, four barrels of acids, sacks of fertilizer, a grenade and various other explosive materials and devices.
A few Palestinian gunmen put up brief, mild resistance, residents and the army spokesman said, but there were no major battles. Most of the injured were civilians, according to hospital officials, who scoffed at Army claims that only armed militants were targeted.
"I fell asleep, and when I woke up I was hot, so I went to open the window for air. As soon as I opened it, I was hit with a bullet in my right arm," explained Abdul Nasar Aghbur, 37, a construction worker interviewed at a local hospital, who said his ambulance was held up by soldiers for two hours.
The raid was the largest military operation mounted by Israel in its 44-day old reoccupation of seven of the eight major West Bank cities. Although Israeli forces have remained in control of Nablus, they had backed away from the city center in recent weeks and abstained from cracking down on a nascent civil resistance campaign this week against the 24-hour curfews imposed here and elsewhere in the reoccupied cities.
The reoccupation of the West Bank towns—much like an earlier bloodier operation in April, has been described by Israeli officials as an effort to choke off the continued flow of suicide bombers and other militants who have killed scores of Israeli civilians since the start of the current uprising in September 2000.
Last night Israeli forces destroyed at least six houses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip last night because they belonged to the families of Palestinians who attacked Israel.
Main streets near the center of Nablus were littered with debris and crammed with tanks and armored personnel carriers. Groups of Palestinians were handcuffed on street corners and under guard, some claiming they had been held for more than seven hours. Around the city, new earthen berms were plowed into the streets to prevent cars from using the roads.
In addition to probably being the place where the Hebrew University bomb was built, military officials said, Nablus was also home to the suicide bomber who blew himself up inside a bus at Jerusalem's Patt Junction on June 18, killing 19 Israelis, and to some of the men who attacked a bus near the Israeli settlement of Emmanuel on July 16, killing nine.
"We didn't have any choice" but to launch today's operation, a military source said. "We have to react and make sure that the next terrorist attack is prevented."
The June 18 suicide bombing at Patt Junction and another suicide blast in Jerusalem that killed seven the next day led to Israel's decision to reoccupy the West Bank, retaking seven of the eight largest Palestinian cities and imposing stringent curfews.
But while Israeli government officials claim the operation has thwarted dozens of attacks, many critics claim that the government's policies have failed to either stop the bombings or move the country closer to peace. They note that at least 20 people were killed and more than 140 were injured in Palestinian attacks in Israel and the occupied territories in July.
Nablus residents said they awoke early today to the sound of tanks rumbling in the streets.
"Everyone expected this [after the Hebrew University bombing] because every action has a reaction, but we did not expect them to re-invade Nablus," said Khaled Shteiwi, 42, a shop owner in the northern part of the city.
"They entered the Old City from all sides," Mayor Ghassan W. Shakah said in a telephone interview from his home on the edge of Nablus. "They went down each alley, searching from side to side."
Shakah said that about 150 tanks, bulldozers and jeeps were used in the operation. Bulldozers destroyed parts of two schools, he said, adding that soldiers also destroyed the gates to the town hall with explosives and searched the administrative offices.
Mai Fatayer, 16, a student and volunteer medical worker, said she was awakened by the sound of armored vehicles in the streets about 2 a.m. A short time later, a woman began screaming outside her building for help, saying two men had been shot, and Fatayer went to a second floor balcony to see what she could do.
"I told the woman I was going to follow her, but first I wanted to call an ambulance to tell them the location, and then I was shot," Fatayer said. She said the shots came from a school across the street where Israeli soldiers had set up a sniper position.
When the ambulance came, she shared it with two other men, one of whom was dead. The wounded one explained what had happened: "He said they heard an explosion, so he went upstairs to see what happened, up to the roof. His brother-in-law told him to come down, that he might be shot, but he didn't listen. So the brother-in-law went up to force him to come down, and they were both shot. He was injured, the brother-in-law was killed."
Hospital officials identified the dead man as Nouman Zalum, 40. They said he was shot in the back.
The other wounded included a 41-year-old woman and her son, 21, who were shot while on their balcony, and a 31-year-old man shot in his left leg, hospital officials said. Another man, Raed Amad, who was in his twenties, was also killed, but no details were available.
An Israeli army spokesman said that a Hamas activist, Amjad Jubur, 28, was shot and killed in the village of Salem, just east of Nablus, while trying to escape from soldiers who were chasing him. But local residents said that he was executed by the soldiers while handcuffed.
"The sent a neighbor to knock on his door and asked him to go out," said Nablus Mayor Shakah, who heard about the death from members of Jubur's family. "They shot him in front of his wife and children. They say he's from the Hamas group. I don’t know."
Correspondent Molly Moore contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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