Israel Retakes Palestinian City and Calls Up Reservists
Palestinian minister Saeb Erekat said Israel was ``resuming fully its occupation'' of territory handed over under interim peace deals and sought to destroy the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian witnesses said about 60 Israeli vehicles, including tanks and armored personnel carriers, pushed into Qalqilya in the West Bank and surrounded two buildings, calling on residents to leave. No resistance was reported.

``It is their fatal mistake to re-occupy again these Palestinian territories,'' President Yasser Arafat told reporters, saying it would affect regional stability. ``They are agreeing to cancel what was agreed upon from Oslo until now.''

The violence, and debate within the U.S. administration over what Palestinians should be required to do to win the statehood they seek in the West Bank and Gaza, has led President Bush to put off a speech charting a road map for peace.

A declaration of U.S. support for an interim Palestinian state while details of a final peace agreement are negotiated has been mooted as one option Bush might pursue.

But in remarks to reporters Sunday, Arafat appeared cool to the idea when asked if he would accept an interim state.

``First of all is there anything in the international law (that is) interim? You have to remember we have resolutions which have been accepted concerning the...Palestinian independent state, in the United Nations,'' he said in English.

In Jenin Friday, Israeli tanks fired on a fruit and vegetable market, killing three children and a man and wounding 26 people who wrongly thought a curfew had been lifted.

A Palestinian policeman was killed Sunday in a battle with Israeli soldiers near Jenin, Palestinian security sources said.

``They (the Israelis) are continuing the destruction of the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian institutions in order to replace (them) with the Israeli civil administration and Israeli military government,'' Erekat told reporters.

Ben-Eliezer, who expressed regret for Friday's deaths, said in his statement the army would not take over administrative responsibility for Palestinians living in reoccupied cities.

He said international humanitarian agencies and Palestinian civil institutions could continue to operate there.

The army's re-occupation of Palestinian West Bank areas in April and May led to the arrest of hundreds of militants and extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure, but did not stop Palestinian attacks after the troops withdrew.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-mideast.html