Israeli soldiers and Palestinians traded fire Friday morning in the southern West Bank town of Bethlehem and neighboring Beit Jala and Beit Sahour.
Twenty Israeli tanks had penetrated three kilometers (two miles) into the autonomous Palestinian town of Bethlehem early Friday, witnesses told AFP.
The tanks rolled in from two directions, Jabel Hindata and Rachel's Tomb, before a column of armored cars surrounded a refugee camp. Israeli troops were also said to have occupied Bethlehem's Paradise hotel.
Al Jazeera satellite channel reported that the incursion was from three directions, leaving the three towns and the adjacent villages and refugee camps as closed military zones.
The Palestinian news agency, WAFA, reported that Israeli helicopters were hovering over the area while about 20 tanks were advancing into the PA-controlled area.
"These incursions had been decided upon following Palestinians firing of mortars towards Gilo," an Israeli military spokesman said, referring to the Jewish settlement on the fringe of occupied Jerusalem.
The army reported no casualties.
Gilo has often been on the frontline in the year-old Intifada, or uprising, with Israeli troops storming neighboring Beit Jala in August to halt Palestinian attacks on the settlement.
The overnight Israeli military operation followed an Israeli helicopter attack on Bethlehem late Thursday during which three members of the Fateh resistance movement were killed.
One of the victims, Atef Abayat, had been sought by Israel in connection with the murder in September of a female Jewish settler in the Bethlehem area.
Abayat was the Fateh leader in Bethlehem, and said to be the leader of the party’s military wing, Al Aqsa Brigades.
That attack came just a day after the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) assassinated right-wing Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi in retaliation for the killing of its leader in August.
The Palestinian Authority moved to outlaw groups that Israel wants to see behind bars, arresting a dozen suspects but warning that Israeli reprisals risked causing it to lose all control over the situation.
Abu Dhabi satellite channel said that the PFLP’s Abu Ali Mustapha Group, which claimed responsibility for the assassination, was declared outlawed by the PA.
The group is named after the movement’s leader, who was assassinated in August by Israel helicopters.
Meanwhile, world powers pleaded with both sides to exercise restraint as the region again teetered on the brink of chaos, threatening Western efforts to woo Arab states into backing US-led air strikes on Afghanistan – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
