|
Israel Withdraws From Recently Occupied Palestinian Areas VOA News 14 Feb 2002 11:07 UTC 
The Israeli army says it has withdrawn from most of the Palestinian areas it occupied in the Gaza Strip, after an extensive operation to search and arrest militants who fired rockets into Israel. Six Palestinians were killed during Israeli raids into the towns of Deir al-Balah, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun Wednesday. The army says soldiers arrested 18 Palestinians. But Palestinian security officials say 24 people were arrested, most of them relatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad members. Late Wednesday, Israeli forces again briefly entered the town of Deir al-Balah, after mortar shells were fired from the area at a nearby Jewish settlement.
Israel says it will continue such search and arrest operations until it finds Palestinian rocket factories and those who operate them. Israel has accused the militant Hamas group of firing a new kind of rocket - the Qassam-2 - into Israeli farmland in an attack Sunday. The rocket has a range of up to eight kilometers. Hamas says it has the right to acquire whatever weapons it can to combat Israel's superior firepower.
In another development, Palestinian officials say Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat argued angrily with his West Bank security chief Jibril Rajoub on Monday, after mobs freed Islamic militants from Palestinian jails in Hebron. But, Palestinian officials deny Israeli reports that there was a major rift between the two men.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says Mr. Arafat wrote him a letter this week accepting responsibility, as chairman of the Palestinian Authority, for the recent attempt to smuggle in weapons from Iran. Israel seized the arms shipment in the Red Sea last month. Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged Mr. Arafat to do more to crack down on Palestinian extremists. The two men held talks in the West Bank town Ramallah, where Israel has confined the Palestinian leader since December.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer visits the region Thursday, but Israeli radio says a planned meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been canceled because Mr. Sharon is ill.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and DPA.
|