Saturday, January 18, 2003

Two Palestinians Attack Jewish Settlement, Killing One Israeli
The violence today comes after an extensive roundup of Palestinians by the Israeli Army. Beginning Tuesday, there have been reports of 20 to 30 arrests a day, usually in raids looking for a specific suspect. Many of the arrests have been made by a special undercover unit called Duvdevan, with soldiers dressed like Arabs, others by troops from the Paratroop Brigade or other elite units that have virtually taken over the major Palestinian cities. There were nine arrests overnight in a series of operations in the West Bank, army radio reported this afternoon.

In part the arrests appear to reflect worries that Palestinian suicide bombers will strike again before the election, as they did in Tel Aviv the Sunday before last. But Israeli officials also say the increased activity reflects better intelligence — some of it gleaned from earlier arrests and closer coordination between the army, which has surrounded the Gaza Strip and reoccupied the West Bank, and the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence service.

The Israeli human rights organization B'tselem reported two weeks ago that more than 1,000 Palestinians were in custody, the most since 1991, during the earlier intifada. Some old prison camps have been reopened, but the facilities are strained and the Shin Bet does not have enough interrogators to keep up with the flow of detainees.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/18/international/middleeast/18MIDE.html

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