gelatik
01.03.02, 03:15
Palestinian Authority officials yesterday called the IDF raids on the Balata
refugee camp in Nablus and the Jenin refugee camp "a massacre of Palestinian
refugees."
"It seems [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon wants to end his career with another
massacre like the one at Sabra and Shatilla," Hussam Khader, a senior Fatah
leader from Balata camp who is also a member of the PA Legislative Council,
told The Jerusalem Post.
Palestinian sources said more than 180 Palestinians had been injured in Balata
and in the Jenin refugee camp and 14 had been killed.
In a statement released by the PA, officials said Palestinians had the right
to "defend themselves, their land, and their existence after the Israeli
government has rejected all cease-fire offers." They also called upon the
international community to intervene to protect Palestinian refugees from the
assault.
Fatah leaders vowed to step up their attacks if the IDF actions don't
stop. "With this attack [on the refugee camps], Sharon has created more coffins
for his people," Khader said.
The IDF entered Balata and the Jenin refugee camp yesterday in an operation
aimed at arresting Palestinian militants and confiscating weapons. The camps
are strongholds for the popular resistance committees that organize the
intifada activities.
The crowded camps are difficult for the IDF to access because the narrow
streets make it impossible for tanks to enter, and local gunmen who know the
labyrinth of streets well find it easy to take cover.
Last week, after gunmen from the Aksa Brigades killed six Israeli soldiers, the
army took up positions around Balata, commandeering four apartment buildings
overlooking the camp. Hundreds of militia members are in Balata, home to 20,000
Palestinians.
"To catch some militants, they destroy the entire camp and assault the whole
camp population.... What kind of logic is that," Bassam Abu Sharif, an advisor
to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat asked.
Khader said the IDF came looking for him at his home, charging that he was one
of the leaders of the Fatah militants. "They took my mother, sister... and the
children and locked them into one room, while they searched the house breaking
everything," he said. "The joint security meetings are not leading to any
progress on the ground, the violence will continue.... Only when the number of
Israeli death reaches 500 will the Israelis start to move and overthrow the
government of Sharon," Khader said.
"The Israelis will start asking themselves why a 20-year-old Israeli from Tel
Aviv should have to die in Balata camp.... He should go to the beach instead,"
he added.
The Palestinians, he said, will not give up their struggle until they have
their state. "There is no life without dignity, freedom and without our state,"
he said.
The IDF gave residents the choice to leave the camp before the assault, but no
one left, said one Palestinian. "The Palestinians have learned their lesson ...
not to leave their homes - they may find them destroyed or may not be able to
return," he said.
Speaking by phone as the assault got under way, Nasser Awais, a leader of the
Aksa Brigades said, "Israeli troops will not enter the camp except over our
dead bodies."
Khader claimed Fatah had scored a victory over the soldiers when gunmen had
surrounded the UNWRA school, which had been taken over by IDF soldiers. The
Fatah gunmen placed explosive devices around the school, which can be detonated
by remote control, he added. The PA sent two security officers to the camp
to "negotiate the release of the soldiers," he claimed. Israel denied the
reports.
A Palestinian source said soldiers are in the school, but did not believe that
they were trapped. "It seems the soldiers feel that they are in control of the
situation, while the people in the camp feel they have encircled them," he
explained
