24 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Israel clamps down on West Bank
The Associated Press
HEBRON, West Bank (AP) After briefly lifting a curfew to allow students to take exams, Israeli soldiers stormed a Hebron college campus Tuesday, detaining 300 Palestinians for questioning.
At least seven students were taken away by the army and a number of the students were blindfolded, witnesses said of the Israeli operation, which continued a pattern of large-scale searches and arrests in the main West Bank population centers over the past two weeks.
Since back-to-back suicide bombing attacks in Jerusalem killed 26 Israelis last month, Israeli forces have taken control of seven of the eight main Palestinian cities and towns, declaring curfews that have confined at least 700,000 people to their homes. Only Jericho remains free of Israeli control.
Hundreds of Palestinians have also been detained for questioning and about 60 are still being held, military sources said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. That was far fewer than Israel detained during a six-week offensive West Bank that ended in May — and which failed to stop Palestinian suicide bombings.
At least 2,000 reserve troops have been called up for the security operations.
"We hope once we are able to subdue
terrorism... it will be possible to renew the political process... and allow the Palestinian people to return to normal life, which definitely they do deserve," said Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
In Ramallah, Israeli tanks maintained their positions around Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters.
Responding to a statement by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said U.S. officials would not meet with Arafat, the Palestinian National Council, a PLO policy body, put out a statement Tuesday expressing its "full, unconditional support and solidarity" with Arafat. The statement said Palestinian officials should "forbid meetings with foreign officials if they are not authorized by the (Palestinian) leadership."
In Hebron, soldiers entered the Palestinian Polytechnic Institute, a two-year college, and ordered men and women into separate yards, where they checked identification cards and questioned students, witnesses said.
The army did not immediately comment on the operation, and it was not clear whether the Israelis lifted the curfew in order to question the students.
Israeli soldiers, meanwhile, re-entered Qalqiliya, residents said, just hours after pulling out and redeploying at the edge of the West Bank town.
A round-the-clock curfew was lifted for
several hours Tuesday in Bethlehem, but remained in place in other areas.
Gissin said security forces were trying to ease curfews in the day and that the government was making an effort to ensure that Palestinians received aid from relief agencies.
"We are well aware of the very difficult and the stressful situation that the Palestinian people finds itself in and we are trying to do everything in our effort, within the very difficult security situation we find, to ease restrictions," Gissin said.
Since the military clamped down on West Bank towns 12 days ago and imposed curfews, no Israelis have been killed by Palestinians but 15 Palestinians have died in clashes.
During the earlier Israeli incursion, more than 200 Palestinians were killed, along with 28 Israelis.
In the southern Gaza Strip, along the border with Egypt, Israeli forces found and destroyed a tunnel intended for smuggling weapons, the army said, adding that several such tunnels had been found recently.
On the political front, the Labor Party, a partner in Sharon's coalition government, debated plans to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The party leader, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, told party activists at a convention in Tel Aviv that their main challenge was to restore credibility among the voters.