------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Sept. 27, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- TOOK ADVANTAGE OF CRISIS: ISRAEL LAUNCHES OFFENSIVE, THEN PULLS BACK By Joyce Chediac The Israeli government launched a major military escalation into the West Bank and Gaza after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority were pummeled by land, sea and air, bringing the total Palestinian death toll to 635 since Israeli assaults began a year ago. "The Israelis are exploiting the world's preoccupation with events in the U.S. to carry on with their crimes against the Palestinian people," said Yasir Abed Rabbo, a senior aide to Yasser Arafat. Israel used U.S. F-16 fighter planes and Apache helicopters in its assaults. Even as Israeli troops, tanks and helicopters were battering the Occupied Territories, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused the Palestinian Authority of "terrorism." Sharon hardened Israel's diplomatic stand. On Sept. 16, he announced plans to create a "buffer zone" that would seal off the West Bank. The same day he called off cease-fire talks scheduled with Arafat and refused to meet the Palestinian Authority at all unless it could first "guarantee" a 48-hour cease-fire on the part of Palestinian resistance. Also on Sept. 16, the Israeli Army announced plans to establish an 18-mile-long "closed military area" in the northern part of the West Bank border between the Palestinian cities of Jenin and Tulkarm. The closure order would go into effect Sept. 24. "Anyone violating the closure order will be arrested and put on trial," an Israeli Army spokesperson said. CEASE-FIRE ANNOUNCED But then, on Sept. 18, a cease-fire was announced. Arafat ordered his forces not to return fire even if fired upon. Israel pulled its troops out of Palestinian-controlled territory and said it would refrain from offensive action, according to the Sept. 19 New York Times. The U.S. government has made no public statement condemning the Israeli aggression. However, Secretary of State Colin Powell did converse with Sharon on Sept. 16. Afterwards Sharon, not wanting to look like he was following U.S. orders, told Israeli radio that Powell "did not exert any pressure'' on Israel to agree to truce talks. Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat had earlier called the plans for a closed military area "the most dangerous thing this Israeli government is undertaking." He added that its purpose was "to prepare for an all-out assault on the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian Authority areas." The Arab press also viewed this as part of a plan by Israel to recapture the areas of the Occupied Territories currently under the control of the Palestinian Authority. WEST BANK: 60 TANKS BESIEGE JENIN Arab newspapers report that Palestinian cities have been turned into areas "of real war between the invading Israeli forces and the Palestinian citizens who hurried to defend their cities." (ArabNews.com, Sept.14) Israeli forces imposed a siege on Jenin after positioning 60 tanks and armored carriers and a large number of troops around the town and its refugee camp. The Israeli military randomly shelled homes and cars, made tank incursions into the town, and blew up the governor's offices. The assault faced stiff Palestinian resistance. Jericho and the adjacent refugee camp of Aqbat Jaber were shelled. Israeli occupation forces opened fire at Kharbatha junction in the district of Ramallah, fatally wounding Rafat Al Malhi while he was driving to work. When people came to rescue him, Israeli soldiers stopped them and left him bleeding for 90 minutes before an Israeli ambulance arrived at the scene. Resistance has been continuous and fierce in many areas. In Ramallah on Sept. 16, about 600 Palestinians marched toward an Israeli Army checkpoint to protest Israel's blockade--tightened that day after a weekend incursion by Israeli troops. Troops responded with tear gas, rubber- coated steel bullets and live rounds. GAZA SUFFERED LAND, SEA AND AIR ASSAULTS Israeli forces launched air, sea and land assaults on Palestinian positions in the impoverished Gaza Strip, home to nearly a million refugees. Helicopter gunship missiles destroyed a Palestinian military intelligence headquarters in Gaza City. Anti-tank missiles hit a Palestinian police station in Rafa, near the Egyptian border. Also in Rafa, a 35-year-old Palestinian man whom witnesses said was mentally disabled wandered into the streets during the shooting and was killed by shots fired from a nearby Israeli watchtower. In Nusseirat, Israeli warships fired three shells, destroying most of a Palestinian naval building on the beach, according to an Agence France Press photographer on the scene. Israeli soldiers fired on a taxi at a checkpoint near a settlement, killing one Palestinian. Elsewhere in Gaza, soldiers fired live rounds at children throwing stones. Doctors reported five children wounded. The cease-fire is only a temporary measure that could collapse at any time if Israel renews its all-out aggression against the Palestinian people. All progressive people, especially those in the United States, must be on alert to show solidarity with the besieged Palestinian people and demand a genuine solution to this struggle that respects their national rights. [Information in this article comes from dispatches in the New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France Press, ArabNews.com--a web site that carries the front pages of Arab newspapers--and LAW: the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment.] - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
