Israeli army sweeps into Nablus to crush extremists

As international efforts to promote Middle East peace diplomacy hit rough water yet again, Israel's armed forces swept back into Nablus yesterday at the end of a week of daily military raids into Palestinian-run areas of the West Bank.

Hundreds of Palestinians were seen being rounded up in a field by the troops, who also entered the nearby Balata refugee camp, one of the strongholds of Palestinian militant opposition to the Israel occupation.

Eyewitnesses said that after the Israeli troops checked the identities of the men, some Palestinians were blindfolded and handcuffed and taken away for questioning. Reports said about 100 men were detained, to be added to the thousands held in Israeli lock-ups from previous round-ups.

The Israeli army invaded Nablus in force in April, killing at least 70 Palestinians, including civilians, amid fierce fighting. It said its latest operation was in response to recent "murderous attacks" against Israelis, a reference to the renewed wave of Palestinian suicide bombings, which resumed less than a month after the end of Israel's military invasion of the West Bank aimed at crushing the Palestinian "terrorist infrastructure".

Yesterday's raid might have been connected with an attack four days ago, in which a Palestinian gunman penetrated Itamar, a Jewish settlement near Nablus, and shot dead three teenagers before being killed himself.

Reports yesterday said that Israeli troops also blew up a house belonging to relatives of a suicide bomber ­ also standard practice in this conflict. The home belonged to the family of Jihad Titi, an 18-year-old suicide bomber from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who launched an attack on Monday near Tel Aviv that killed an Israeli woman and her 18-month-old granddaughter.

According to Israeli army officials, another attack on a Jewish settlement was narrowly averted yesterday when a Palestinian gunman infiltrated Shavei Shomron, but was shot and killed by a settler.

Israel's West Bank settlements, home to some 210,000 people, remain squarely on the Palestinian target list. Although Palestinians are divided on the legitimacy of suicide bombings, there is overwhelming support for attacks on settlements, which the right-wing government of Ariel Sharon ­ a lifelong supporter of the settlers ­ is continuing to expand in the occupied territories in defiance of the international community.

Yesterday's events in Nablus marked the end of a week that has seen the Israel army roll in and out of West Bank towns within Area A ­ land under Palestinian autonomous rule ­ ignoring previous calls from the United States and the international community not to enter Palestinian-run areas. These included going back into Bethlehem, scene of the 39-day siege of the Church of the Nativity, and placing the population under another curfew for several days.

Israelis have started to realise that Mr Sharon's military measures have not, as at first thought, proved effective. Each day new details emerge of attacks or thwarted attacks. This week Israeli authorities revealed that they had arrested a Jewish woman, an immigrant from the Soviet Union married to a Palestinian, on suspicion of driving two suicide bombers into Israel in a stolen car. One bomber ­ a woman ­ reportedly developed cold feet; the other, aged 17, killed two Israelis in a park in Rishon Letzion, near Tel Aviv.

The woman told Israeli interrogators that she did not know who her passenger was until after the event.