Israeli Troops Patrol West Bank
Israeli troops searched for explosives in the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday, as a European envoy cited mid-July as a tentative date for a Middle East peace conference.
The army maintained its grip on Nablus and the adjacent Balata refugee camp -- both bastions of Palestinian militants -- on the third day of a sweep the Israeli government said was aimed at thwarting more suicide bombings in its cities.
Troops blasted open doors to search for explosives.
Israel waged a six-week military offensive against militant bombers across the West Bank that ended on May 10 with claims of success, but attacks resumed two weeks later and troops have raided Palestinian towns repeatedly since.
The raids, coupled with tightened closures and ad hoc curfews, have all but wiped out boundaries between territory under Palestinian self-rule and that occupied by Israel, negotiated under interim peace deals during the 1990s.
The Palestinian Authority says such conditions will make it difficult to carry out democratic reforms and rein in security organs linked to violence -- conditions set by Israel for reviving talks on a final peace envisaging a Palestinian state.
Israel says it has little choice for now. "Our intelligence indicates that army operations in the West Bank since the end of (the offensive) have prevented 40 Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis," a security source said. There have been five suicide attacks since May 10.
In a separate development, Palestinians charged that the Israeli army is quietly taking over West Bank land privately owned by Palestinians. The confiscations of land are allegedly a temporary move to protect its citizens from militants. But Palestinians — mindful that similar tactics were once used to establish Jewish settlements — fear they will never get their land back.
According to Israeli military documents, copies of which were obtained by The Associated Press, some of the land seized is in areas where officials want to build a fortified fence to keep Palestinian militants from entering Israel. Other documents indicate Israel is trying to create buffers between Jewish enclaves and Palestinian towns deep within the West Bank — including this town of Salfit, which is surrounded by 17 large and small settlements.
Critics say the scattered and in some cases sizable seizures could carve up the West Bank in a way that would make it difficult for the Palestinians to create a viable state on land Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War.
Also Sunday, it was announced that Yasser Arafat has offered Cabinet posts to Hamas and other militant groups involved in suicide attacks against Israelis as part of a government reshuffle he plans to announce in coming days, Palestinians said Sunday.
While three other radical groups have turned down the Palestinian leader's offer, saying they don't want to belong to a government that's willing to negotiate with Israel, Hamas is still weighing the proposal, the group said.
It would mark the first time in his eight years as chairman of the Palestinian Authority that Arafat formally brought Hamas into government a move likely to be strongly opposed by Israel and the United States, which both regard Hamas as a terrorist group.