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Israel increases troops in palestinian terroritories { October 8 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/08/international/08CND-MIDEAS.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/08/international/08CND-MIDEAS.html
October 8, 2003
Israel Increases Troops in Palestinian Territories
By GREG MYRE
JERUSALEM, Oct. 8 — Faced with dozens of warnings of possible Palestinian attacks, Israel ordered additional troops to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip today and maintained tough restrictions on Palestinian movements in those areas.
Israeli troops withdrew from some Palestinian areas and began lifting a limited number of roadblocks after a Middle East peace plan was introduced in June. But ongoing violence has left the peace plan in tatters, and Israel has reimposed some of most stringent travel restrictions in months.
Advisers to Yasir Arafat denied a report in the British newspaper, The Guardian, that the Palestinian leader had recently suffered a "mild heart attack."
Mr. Arafat has appeared frail during brief public appearances in recent days, but aides and doctors say he is suffering from a bad intestinal virus, not something more serious.
"He had a stomach flu, but he never had a heart attack," Dr. Yousef Goussous, a physician who examined Mr. Arafat last week, told The Associated Press.
Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz called for the deployment of the additional troops to guard against Palestinian attacks, like the suicide bombing on Saturday that killed 19 Israelis in the northern port city of Haifa.
Mr. Mofaz also authorized the call-up of army reservists if necessary.
Israeli intelligence currently has warnings of more than 30 possible Palestinian attacks, the Israeli new media reported. While that number is not considered unusually high, Israeli authorities have decided to keep the current restrictions in place indefinitely.
A "general closure" prevents the 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from entering Israel. In addition, the restrictions also block Palestinians from traveling from one Palestinian town to another within the West Bank and Gaza.
Most Palestinians have been unable to reach Israel since the Mideast fighting began three years ago. But the internal closures in the West Bank and Gaza make normal life virtually impossible. Many Palestinians travel between towns or from outlying villages to reach their jobs and schools or to shop.
Israel said the army would maintain "a full encirclement on all of the Palestinian cities in the West Bank," while the Gaza Strip has been cut into four sections, with Palestinians unable to move from one to another.
The current restrictions have been in place on-and-off for two weeks, and Israeli news reports said they were not likely to be lifted for another two weeks.
No major confrontations were reported today, but the tension was evident.
In the West Bank village of Jayus, Palestinian farmers have been unable to reach their olive and citrus groves in the past week because Israeli security forces have not opened the gates of a fence that runs between the village and the fields.
A group of villagers pulled on the gate until the lock broke, only to be confronted by soldiers, who made several arrests, Palestinian witnesses said.
Israel is building in the barrier along the West Bank boundary, as well as inside the West Bank itself, saying the structure is needed to keep out suicide bombers. Palestinians have denounced it as a land grab that has disrupted life in many villages.
Israel announced it had arrested three Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem suspected of assisting suicide bombers from the West Bank who carried out three attacks in Jerusalem in recent months.
The three were said to have given bomb belts to the attackers when they arrived in east Jerusalem from Hebron, a West Bank city to the south. And in at least one case, the suspects provided an attacker with clothes so he could disguise himself as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, the police said.
With rare exceptions, Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem have not been directly involved in the violence over the past three years. However, in several recent cases, they have been accused or convicted of providing logistical support to Palestinian bombers from the West Bank.
Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem have special identity cards that allow them to move freely inside Israel, unlike Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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