Israeli military crackdown in West Bank city

In one of the largest military operations there in two years, the Israeli Army put a large area in the center of the West Bank city of Nablus under curfew on Feb. 25. Security sources and witnesses said the Israeli Army distributed flyers early that day, saying the raid was aimed at arresting nine wanted people. The raid also came a day after troops discovered an explosives laboratory in the town, according to an Israeli spokeswoman. An Israeli Army spokesman said: "Our forces are operating in Nablus to discover caches of arms and explosives and to arrest those responsible for attacks against Israel." Residents said the wanted men included members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, and the Islamic Jihad group. Both factions had clashed with Israeli forces earlier in the week. On Feb. 21 Israeli Special Forces disguised as Palestinians ambushed and killed an Islamic Jihad commander. Jihad, which carried out a suicide bombing that killed three people in Israel on Jan. 29, did not sign on to a Gaza cease-fire that militants declared with Israel in November. The Israeli Army had clashed with members of the Al-Aqsa brigade in Jenin on Feb. 22 in an operation that led to several arrests. The operation in Nablus began on Feb. 24 and was intensified before dawn the next day, with nearly 100 Israeli jeeps and armored vehicles moving into the center city. Bulldozers pushed rubble into piles on main roads to make them impassable, witnesses said, while snipers took positions on rooftops in the Old City and the neighborhood close to Raefedia hospital. Troops began sweeps of the closely packed old city, or casbah, with its covered markets and small apartments. Some Palestinians responded by throwing stones, chunks of cement or firing weapons; two Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded and six Palestinians were wounded, mostly by rubber bullets, Palestinian medics said. Some 20 Palestinians were arrested. Jeeps blocked entries to two main hospitals in the city, al-Watani and Raefedia, said Ghassan Hamdan, a doctor there. Schools and colleges canceled classes. The army also took over local television and radio stations, ordering people to remain indoors and warning that the clampdown would remain in effect for several days, Palestinian residents said. According to various reports, 10-50,000 people in the center of Nablus were said to be under curfew. The Israeli forces discovered a second explosives laboratory in Nablus in as many days in the Feb. 25 raid. The lab contained pipe bombs, explosive materials and a hand-held Lau guided missile and launcher that apparently had belonged to the Israeli Army, Maj. Avital Liebovich said. It was not immediately clear whether the missile had been stolen or purchased. Since the beginning of 2006, the Israelis have uncovered nine explosive labs in the West Bank, six of them in Nablus, Major Leibovich said. The Feb. 25 Israeli incursion was the largest in the West Bank since a raid into Ramallah in early January when four Palestinians died. The militant Palestinian faction Hamas, which is more secretive in the Israeli-occupied West Bank than in Gaza, has been organizing in Nablus and quietly recruiting members for a West Bank version of its parallel police force in Gaza, known as the Executive Force. In Gaza, Hamas officials said the raid was intended to undermine efforts to create a unity Palestinian government including Hamas and Fatah ministers. "We question why these military campaigns are increasing now," said Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led government. "This indicates the Israeli government is trying to turn what was agreed upon in Mecca into a failure." A Hamas legislator also criticized King Abdullah II of Jordan for asking that a unity government meet international requirements and recognize Israel. "I asked myself, 'What did the king offer to lift the siege on the Palestinian people and was he a part of the Arabic system or a part of another one?'" the legislator, Yehia Moussa, said. In an interview broadcast on Feb. 24 with Israeli Channel 2, King Abdullah said that "there is Arabic and international harmony and the upcoming Palestinian government must abide by this harmony, especially the demands of the Quartet." Quartet members in the Middle East peace negotiations–the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations–have jointly demanded that a new Palestinian government recognize the right of Israel to exist, forswear violence and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements in order to end its isolation and be qualified for direct budget support.