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Israeli Tanks Invade Tulkarem
TULKAREM, Palestine, January 25, 2005 (IPC + Agencies) - - Israeli occupation forces invaded the province of Tulkarem and launched a wide arrest campaign in other provinces in the West Bank.
IPC correspondent in Tulkarem said that more than 40 military vehicles invaded the province of Tulkarem, mainly the town of Saida and Tulkarem City, and conducted a wide house-to-house search campaign, during which several civilians were arrested.
Our correspondent quoted security sources and eyewitnesses as saying that Israeli troops raided many houses in the city, a thing that prompted some international peace activists to move to Tulkarem to express their solidarity with the owners of these houses.
In the meantime, IPC correspondent in the West Bank city of Jenin said that the Israeli troops launched on Tuesday morning an arrest campaign in Silat Alharithiya neighborhood, west of the city, under a barrage of heavy gun fire.
The abovementioned campaign has resulted in the detention of several local Palestinian inhabitants, as a curfew was imposed on the Silat Alharithiya.
Also, the Israeli occupation troops stormed the Jenin's outskirt of Jaba', south of the city, and arresting at least three locals, local sources told the IPC's.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=2168
Our correspondent quoted security sources and eyewitnesses as saying that Israeli troops raided many houses in the city, a thing that prompted some international peace activists to move to Tulkarem to express their solidarity with the owners of these houses.
In the meantime, IPC correspondent in the West Bank city of Jenin said that the Israeli troops launched on Tuesday morning an arrest campaign in Silat Alharithiya neighborhood, west of the city, under a barrage of heavy gun fire.
The abovementioned campaign has resulted in the detention of several local Palestinian inhabitants, as a curfew was imposed on the Silat Alharithiya.
Also, the Israeli occupation troops stormed the Jenin's outskirt of Jaba', south of the city, and arresting at least three locals, local sources told the IPC's.
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=2168
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The victim, whose identity was not immediately known, had been shot on Monday evening in a closed military zone around the settlement of Netzarim, just south of Gaza City, hospital sources said.
His body was retrieved on Tuesday by the ambulance service after it received clearance from the Israeli authorities.
It is believed to be the first death of a Palestinian in Gaza at the hands of Israeli troops since President Abbas ordered the large-scale deployment of Palestinian security forces with orders to prevent attacks on Israeli targets.
The teenager's death brings the overall toll since the September 2000 start of the second Palestinian uprising, or intifada, to 4717, including 3662 Palestinians and 981 Israelis.
Demolitions
Abbas has also followed through on his promise to crack down on the resistance by ordering bulldozers to demolish buildings illegally erected on public land and allegedly used to house fighters.
On Tuesday, bulldozers got to work in northern Gaza.
Aljazeera reported that tens of heavily armed Palestinian security forces started the demolition work.
Palestinian police clashed with some homeowners and shopkeepers over their properties.
Rogue construction
Municipal police official Musa Alian said hundreds of buildings erected without permits would be felled in coming days, adding that their owners had all received advance warnings.
Previous orders to remove the buildings had been ignored in the last years of Yasir Arafat.
"Our Land Authority warned violators once, twice and three times, but the state of chaos that had spread in the community hindered the implementation of the law," he said.
"We are now beginning a new era in which law must be respected and all government lands returned."
Thousands of other Palestinian buildings, including homes, have been demolished by the Israeli occupation army in Gaza and the West Bank since 2000, in what it calls efforts to deprive fighters of gun nests and arms-making plants.
Palestinians have denounced such demolitions as collective punishments.
Aljazeera + Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7C0ABD39-2818-438A-85E5-3202FBD8E9B5.htm
Abbas: Talks with Israel are 'promising in all aspects'
By Amos Harel, Aluf Benn and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies
After a day of diplomatic and security talks between Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said that the contacts were "promising in all aspects."
Breaking a freeze in diplomatic contacts, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's senior advisor Dov Weisglass met Wednesday with PA Minister Saeb Erekat to discuss the transfer of four West Bank cities to Palestinian security control.
During the first phase, to be implemented within a few weeks, security control of Ramallah, Jericho, Qalqilyah, and Tul Karm will be handed to Palestinian security forces.
Weisglass and Erekat also decided on continued security contacts between Israel and the PA, although settlers succeeded Wednesday in bringing about the cancellation of a security coordination meeting in Gush Katif.
Senior Israeli officials Shalom Turgeman and Assaf Shariv, as well as senior Palestinian security official Mohammed Dahlan and Palestinian cabinet official Hassan Abu Libdeh also attended the Jerusalem meeting.
Abu Libdeh said Wednesday that an Israeli-Palestinian summit is to be held within two weeks if remaining differences over the agenda can be settled.
In southern Gaza, PA officers met with IDF counterparts to coordinate the deployment of PA troops in order to prevent militant rocket and mortar attacks in the area.
The Palestinian officers were set upon by Israeli settlers, who rioted and punctured the tires of the PA cars. The two groups were separated physically by IDF troops, preventing further clashes.
Aides of Sharon and Abbas are to meet again next week to discuss the agenda for the summit. Israel wants to focus on security issues, while the Palestinians also want to discuss the release of Palestinian prisoners and the West Bank separation fence.
"The summit will be held within two weeks if we finalize all the details in the upcoming meeting that will be held next week," Abu Libdeh told The Associated Press.
Sharon spokesman Ra'anan Gissin confirmed that a summit is planned but said "our main concern is security - that the Palestinians continue to take additional steps to end the violence, terrorism and incitement."
Wednesday's meeting followed a decision by Sharon earlier in the day to lift a ban on diplomatic talks with the PA imposed after a Palestinian attack on the Karni crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip left six Israelis dead.
A statement released by the Government Press Office said that "contacts were resumed in wake of the positive developments in the Palestinian Authority and the effort to prevent terrorism."
"The contacts are conditional on comprehensive Palestinian activity against terrorism, violence, and incitement."
Meanwhile, Israel has stopped the targeted killing of Palestinian militants, fulfilling a key Palestinian demand for a truce to end four years of violence, AP reported early Wednesday.
Security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israel has informed the Palestinians of their decision. It came after generals from the two sides met Tuesday to plan deployment of Palestinian police in central and southern Gaza, to prevent militants from attacking Israelis.
Vice Premier Ehud Olmert stopped short of confirming the decision, but indicated a change in policy, saying Israel needs to respond to Palestinian efforts to prevent attacks on Israel. "If there is a real change [in Palestinian efforts]... this is something we need to relate to," he told Army Radio.
Abbas will depart Friday for visits to Egypt, Jordan, Russia and Turkey. If he obtains U.S.- and Egyptian-backed guarantees that Israel will halt military operations, he is expected to return to the Gaza Strip for a formal cease-fire declaration, Palestinian officials told AP.
On the ground, however, violence continued.
A three-year-old Palestinian girl, Rahma Abu Shamas, was killed in Gaza on Wednesday morning by Israel Defense Forces fire. In the West Bank, a Hamas militant was killed and two Al-Aqsa Brigades members were wounded by Border Police fire.
Earlier in the day, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired two Qassam rockets into southern Israel, causing no damage or casualties.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/531967.html
Abbas: Talks with Israel are 'promising in all aspects'
By Amos Harel, Aluf Benn and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies
After a day of diplomatic and security talks between Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said that the contacts were "promising in all aspects."
Breaking a freeze in diplomatic contacts, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's senior advisor Dov Weisglass met Wednesday with PA Minister Saeb Erekat to discuss the transfer of four West Bank cities to Palestinian security control.
During the first phase, to be implemented within a few weeks, security control of Ramallah, Jericho, Qalqilyah, and Tul Karm will be handed to Palestinian security forces.
Weisglass and Erekat also decided on continued security contacts between Israel and the PA, although settlers succeeded Wednesday in bringing about the cancellation of a security coordination meeting in Gush Katif.
Senior Israeli officials Shalom Turgeman and Assaf Shariv, as well as senior Palestinian security official Mohammed Dahlan and Palestinian cabinet official Hassan Abu Libdeh also attended the Jerusalem meeting.
Abu Libdeh said Wednesday that an Israeli-Palestinian summit is to be held within two weeks if remaining differences over the agenda can be settled.
In southern Gaza, PA officers met with IDF counterparts to coordinate the deployment of PA troops in order to prevent militant rocket and mortar attacks in the area.
The Palestinian officers were set upon by Israeli settlers, who rioted and punctured the tires of the PA cars. The two groups were separated physically by IDF troops, preventing further clashes.
Aides of Sharon and Abbas are to meet again next week to discuss the agenda for the summit. Israel wants to focus on security issues, while the Palestinians also want to discuss the release of Palestinian prisoners and the West Bank separation fence.
"The summit will be held within two weeks if we finalize all the details in the upcoming meeting that will be held next week," Abu Libdeh told The Associated Press.
Sharon spokesman Ra'anan Gissin confirmed that a summit is planned but said "our main concern is security - that the Palestinians continue to take additional steps to end the violence, terrorism and incitement."
Wednesday's meeting followed a decision by Sharon earlier in the day to lift a ban on diplomatic talks with the PA imposed after a Palestinian attack on the Karni crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip left six Israelis dead.
A statement released by the Government Press Office said that "contacts were resumed in wake of the positive developments in the Palestinian Authority and the effort to prevent terrorism."
"The contacts are conditional on comprehensive Palestinian activity against terrorism, violence, and incitement."
Meanwhile, Israel has stopped the targeted killing of Palestinian militants, fulfilling a key Palestinian demand for a truce to end four years of violence, AP reported early Wednesday.
Security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israel has informed the Palestinians of their decision. It came after generals from the two sides met Tuesday to plan deployment of Palestinian police in central and southern Gaza, to prevent militants from attacking Israelis.
Vice Premier Ehud Olmert stopped short of confirming the decision, but indicated a change in policy, saying Israel needs to respond to Palestinian efforts to prevent attacks on Israel. "If there is a real change [in Palestinian efforts]... this is something we need to relate to," he told Army Radio.
Abbas will depart Friday for visits to Egypt, Jordan, Russia and Turkey. If he obtains U.S.- and Egyptian-backed guarantees that Israel will halt military operations, he is expected to return to the Gaza Strip for a formal cease-fire declaration, Palestinian officials told AP.
On the ground, however, violence continued.
A three-year-old Palestinian girl, Rahma Abu Shamas, was killed in Gaza on Wednesday morning by Israel Defense Forces fire. In the West Bank, a Hamas militant was killed and two Al-Aqsa Brigades members were wounded by Border Police fire.
Earlier in the day, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired two Qassam rockets into southern Israel, causing no damage or casualties.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/531967.html