Israeli tanks roll in fresh reprisal

TULKARM - Israeli troops and tanks rolled into the Palestinian-ruled city of Tulkarm yesterday in an apparent fresh reprisal for a deadly Palestinian shooting attack.

The raid into the West Bank city was a further blow to United States efforts to cement a truce between the sides and was likely to crank up tensions already high since the Palestinian gunman killed six people in northern Israel last week.

Several dozen Israeli tanks thrust deep into Tulkarm and troops searched houses, detaining several Palestinians, said Palestinian security sources and witnesses. The Israeli Army would make no comment.

Witnesses said local gunmen did not offer major resistance and Israeli soldiers in jeeps declared a curfew in the city over loudspeakers.

Tulkarm has been a focal point of renewed violence in the past week since a bomb blast killed a gunman.

Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank yesterday battled Israeli troops while thousands protested in the Gaza Strip in support of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

In Ramallah, eight Palestinians were wounded by shrapnel.

Israel left Arafat stranded in Ramallah last month and destroyed his helicopters after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings.

"How can this be tolerated by the international community?" Arafat said in an interview with Newsweek, referring to the tanks stationed less than 100m from his offices.

The Palestinian leader declared a ceasefire on December 16 under intense international pressure, but that attempt to end the fighting has since dissolved after a nearly one-month lull.

"We haven't been able to get this moving on track because of the continued violence," said US Secretary of State Colin Powell, referring to mediation efforts for a truce-to-peacemaking plan led by US peace envoy Anthony Zinni.

"General Zinni has been to the region twice and I hope he will be able to go back again when conditions permit him to."

Pope John Paul also expressed his concern over the renewed cycle of attack and retaliations.

"I can only urge the leaders of the fighting parties with all my heart to end clashes and the international community not to abandon them. It is urgent to find together a way to re-start peace talks."

Former US President Bill Clinton, in Israel for a two-day visit, urged the two sides not to give up hopes of reaching a peace deal, calling the bloodshed a terrible mistake.

However, the mood of the street was not conciliatory.

More than 3000 Palestinians - mostly Palestinian Authority officials, civil servants and supporters of Arafat's Fatah faction - marched in Gaza, singing patriotic songs and denouncing Israel's virtual imprisonment of their leader.

"We'll sacrifice our blood and our souls for you, Arafat," the crowds screamed as Fatah gunmen shot in the air.

"In the last week there has been a clear increase in the number and severity of terror attacks," Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Arafat would be confined in Ramallah until he arrests Palestinian militants suspected of killing an Israeli cabinet minister in October. The attack was in retaliation for Israel's killing of their leader.

Arafat has since arrested one of the suspects and says he does not know the whereabouts of the others.

- REUTERS

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