Thursday, June 27, 2002

Resistance Thins Out at Palestinian Offices in Hebron
The Israeli military kept up pressure on the West Bank today, firing thousands of rounds into an old British police station here in a standoff with suspected Palestinian militants that has ground on now for two days.

The standoff was one of the few instances of violent resistance to Israel's new major military operations in the West Bank. Seven of the eight major Palestinian population centers remained under almost round-the-clock curfew today, as part of an Israeli campaign to curb suicide bombings.

Throughout the day here in Hebron, bullets and tank shells spattered concrete walls, and fires smoldered.

At least 13 of the Palestinians who emerged from the standoff were arrested as terror suspects, and the military said that more than 100 explosive devices had been found in the area.

But Palestinians, who have for days now been confined to their homes, called the operation here an example of Israeli heavy-handedness.

"You see?" asked Sahayb, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy, crouching behind a stone wall near the building as gunfire hammered away. "No peace. No sleep. Not any life."

In the Jenin refugee camp, a 6-year-old boy was killed after an Israeli soldier opened fire into a group of youths throwing stones at tanks enforcing the curfews. The boy, identified as Bassam Saadi, was hit in the chest. Another boy, 12, was shot in the legs, Palestinian officials said.
Here in Hebron, where 450 Jewish settlers live under heavy guard in a city of 120,000 Palestinians, the streets remained largely empty, even though the Israeli military presence seemed confined to the outskirts and the hilltop Palestinian Authority building.

Military officials said they began a siege of the building on Monday night, after reports that several hundred militants had holed up inside as Israelis began their West Bank campaign. Gun battles killed four Palestinian police officers here on Tuesday, and residents reported that regular firing continued today.

"We are happy there is some resistance," said one Palestinian man, who gave his name as Abu Abed, 60, as he watched the standoff from a nearby building.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/27/international/middleeast/27MIDE.h

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