Tanks rolled into Hebron early Tuesday as Israel expanded its control of Palestinian territory in the West Bank, while in the Gaza Strip on Monday, army helicopter gunships struck leading Hamas militants dead.
The incursion into Hebron, and earlier into Ramallah, where troops and tanks surrounded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s compound, falls under Israel’s new strategy to seize and hold Palestinian-held land until suicide bombings and shootings subside.
Six major cities in the West Bank were under military lockdown, and early Tuesday Israeli forces appeared to be making Hebron the seventh. Two Palestinian policemen were killed when Israeli troops stormed the Palestinian government headquarters in Hebron, Palestinian security officials said.
The Israelis tightened their grip in Ramallah with “big tanks and small tanks and bulldozers,” said Arafat aide Ahmed Abdul Rahman.
“They came out here today without any reason,” he said. “They know there is nothing here to achieve militarily. They just want to sabotage any chance for peace.”
`Massive activity’ planned
Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon indicated that the military effort would move beyond the West Bank and that Israel was “preparing massive activity” against the militant Hamas movement. The Islamic group has engineered dozens of suicide bombings during the nearly 21-month intifada.
Sharon, speaking Monday to parliamentarians from his Likud Party, indicated that the helicopter missile attack on two cars, which killed six Palestinians and wounded five more in the Gaza Strip, was the beginning of a new offensive.
Palestinian sources confirmed that four of the dead were Hamas members and that two were considered senior military commanders. Israel Radio said the army had targeted Yasser Rizik, one of the six, based on information that he was linked to a January attack that killed four Israeli soldiers.
Rizik was the commander in the area around Rafa, in southern Gaza. Another of the dead, Amr Kouffa, was described as a top activist of Hamas’ military wing, according to media reports.
Following the strike, Hamas vowed in a statement to step up suicide attacks, which some in Palestinian society defend as justified in the face of what they term Israeli occupation.
“We emphasize our right to continue the jihad and resistance and to intensify the martyrdom operations as a reaction to the policy of the occupation and the [Palestinian] Authority,” Hamas said. Militants and most Palestinian media outlets routinely refer to the suicide attackers as martyrs.
Palestinian police earlier in the day surrounded the home of Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and Palestinian Authority officials said he was under house arrest. Masked Hamas gunmen still patrolled the house Monday afternoon, however, and Yassin told reporters in Gaza that he was unaware of any arrest order.
The Ramallah incursion appeared to be focused on political targets as much as military aims. For the second time in two weeks, a military incursion thwarted efforts by the new Palestinian leadership to meet. The Cabinet was set to meet Monday to approve a new reform package. That gathering was canceled because members could not safely leave their homes.
The reform package, instead, was approved by phone consultation, members said.
“I think Sharon wants to bring back direct reoccupation,” said Ghassan Khatib, a newly appointed minister. “They’re altering the geographic situation on the ground and now they’re trying to change how we function on the ground.”
Some people in Ramallah appeared to have adapted to the state of siege. By 4 a.m., they awakened to the clatter of helicopters overhead. Within an hour, those who lived near Arafat’s compound were shaken by an explosion. By 6:30, some said, they crawled back into bed with the realization that no one would be able to go to work or school or anywhere outside their homes that day.
By noon, many people were sitting in their gardens or looking out from windows or rooftops at the tanks and other vehicles that took up positions around Arafat’s hilltop compound.
`You can’t live normally’
“At first we were scared” when the tanks came, said Isla Jad, a professor from Bir Zeit University who sat near a blooming flower garden and spoke above the roar of a passing tank. “But then you don’t think about it anymore. You can be shot while you’re walking, you can be shot while you’re shopping. … If you stop to think about, you can’t live normally.”
Samia Amra, 46, was shot at a few weeks ago when she ventured from her home into a nearby vegetable field. That scared her, she said. She figures the Israelis are trying to make her “frustrated, angry, defiant–anything to break your will.”
The West Bank has been paralyzed. Men, out of work for months, are now knocking on doors, asking for day work. People can no longer travel safely to the dentist, doctors or even hospitals.
