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| Middle East |
| PM orders ’wide and extensive’ IDF action after J’lem attack |
| 2002-11-21 |
| Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to carry out a "wide and extensive operation" in response to Thursday morning's suicide bombing on a bus in Jerusalem in which 11 people were killed. During the discussion it was decided that Israel will no longer recognize the "Bethlehem first" understandings reached with the PA, which led to the IDF's withdrawal from the West Bank city in August. So much for that deal. A senior security official told Army Radio on Thursday that if reports that the suicide bomber came from Bethlehem were correct, the IDF would operate in the city. The bomber was named as Na'al Azmi Abu Hilayal, from the village of al-Khader, just south of Bethlehem. Close enough, it appears. Thursday afternoon, IDF troops arrested Hilayal's father and brother. The house will be next to go bye-bye. IDF troops withdrew from Bethlehem on August 19, as part of an attempt by former Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer to put in place a gradual truce in exchange for a PA commitment to track down militants. A similar plan was implemented in Hebron, but the IDF retook the West Bank city earlier this week after 12 Israelis were killed in a shooting attack over the weekend. This is what being nice gets you. "All our efforts to hand over areas... and all the talk about a possible cease-fire, that was all window dressing because on the ground there was a continuous effort to carry out as many terrorist activities (as possible)," advisor to Sharon Ra'anan Gissin said Thursday. Getting close to scorched earth time. |
| Posted by:Steve |