Israeli forces raided the West Bank city of Qalqilya on Friday. The Israeli army said troops had arrested at least 13 Palestinians "suspected of carrying out terrorist activities against Israeli citizens" in the sweeps through Qalqilya and the villages of Beita, Silt a-Dhar and Jaba'a.
Witnesses said about 20 tanks and armored personnel carriers, backed by helicopters, pushed into Qalqilya and that soldiers conducted house-to-house searches after declaring a curfew.
The Qalqilya raid marked the second time Israeli forces have gone back into this city since leaving on April 9. "The activity in Qalqilya...will continue until the mission is completed," an army statement said on Friday.
Meanwhile, another round of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations over the fate of the 230 people inside Bethlehem’s Nativity Church ended inconclusively. Commenting on these talks, Palestinian negotiator Salah Taamari said his team had asked Israel to allow them to travel to Arafat for consultations.
This was the main sticking point at the negotiations in Bethlehem on Thursday. Colonel Marcel Aviv, head of the Israeli negotiating team, said: I would say the prospects of things working out are good."
In New York, the United Nations said it was confident a U.N. fact-finding team established following Palestinian allegations of massacres in the Jenin refugee camp during a crushing Israeli military offensive in the West Bank would arrive in the region as planned by the end of this week. Israel and the U.N. are to resume talks on the scope of the mission on Friday.
The Israeli delegation described the talks as "friendly," while UN sources said Thursday that the fact-finding mission would arrive in Israel on Saturday as planned. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
