Israeli raid 'will not keep TV station off the air'

The wife of the owner of a popular television station in Nablus's old city vowed yesterday that it would return to the airwaves despite the arrest of her husband and the seizure of vital broadcasting equipment by Israeli soldiers.

Sanabel TV went off the air after troops took away computers, digital cards, cassettes, DVD, video and other equipment early on Monday during a three-day operation to hunt down militants and explosives caches in the West Bank city.

Nabegh Braik, 44, the owner of the station, which is the only one in the old city, specialises in grassroots programming that criticises the Palestinian authorities as well as Israel, and says it is not affiliated to any faction, was still in detention last night. His wife, Raida, 41, said she did not know why the station had been raided but added: "We will come back even if we have to buy new equipment piece by piece."

Mrs Braik said the station regularly interviewed Palestinians whose houses had been targeted or occupied during the frequent incursions into the old city. She said the station had not filmed Israeli military operations in progress since a raid in 2002.

Israeli military sources said last night the army had made a number of arrests and "those suspected of involvement in terror activities" had been detained.

Sanabel is financed by commercials and paid-for broadcasts of family weddings or birthdays. It carries news from Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya but focuses mainly on local social issues.

* A split in the international community opened yesterday when Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said that his country would respond to the Palestinian Authority's Fatah-Hamas coalition deal by seeking an end to the international blockade.