Palestinians hold first weapons crackdown in four years

A Palestinian policeman looks at a burnt out police car in the West Bank town of Dura. Picture / Reuters

HEBRON, WEST BANK - Palestinian police have seized bombs and other weapons in the West Bank for the first time in more than four years, a senior Palestinian security official said.

The official told Reuters on Saturday local time that police raiding the West Bank town of Dura, south of Hebron, also arrested 16 suspects in the start of a new crackdown by the Palestinian Authority against lawlessness in its territories.

While the action seemed a move toward meeting the demands of Israel and a US-backed "road map" peace plan for Palestinians to disarm gunmen, it was not clear whether any weapons seized had belonged to militants involved in attacking Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has vowed to end armed chaos in the Palestinian territories but has previously sought to do so through dialogue with gunmen rather than use force.

Jihad Abu Omar, a senior Palestinian security official in Dura, said that Palestinians targeted in Dura were "fugitives of the law" suspected of torching three Palestinian Authority vehicles, including a bulldozer, and stealing cars.

"More than 120 Palestinian security officers from all the security forces began a campaign to put an end to the chaos ... criminals and those who have vandalised public institutions and public property," Abu Omar said.

He said police had "seized ammunition and bombs and some weapons" during the raid ordered by Abbas and his reform-minded Interior Minister Nasser Yousef.

Abu Omar said it was "the first time" Palestinian police had confiscated weapons or ammunition since September 2000 when Palestinians launched their uprising.

"These are gangs that challenge the authority," he said. "The campaign is not going to end, it is going to move from one town to the other."

Saturday's raid followed an escalation in recent days in violence by armed Palestinians against deputies of Abbas, a moderate elected in January to succeed Yasser Arafat, whose new government was approved by Parliament last month.

Palestinian militants wounded a Palestinian policeman on Friday, shooting at a police station in the West Bank city of Nablus after police refused them permission to see a prisoner.

Another policeman was injured in a separate incident on Tuesday in the West Bank town of Jenin when a gunman opened fire near Interior Minister Yousef's motorcade complaining he had not coordinated his visit with the militants.

- REUTERS