HEBRON, West Bank (REUTERS) — President Bush said Sunday a deal to end Israel’s siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s compound marked “a hopeful day for the region,” but violence returned overnight.
Dozens of Israeli tanks swept into the divided West Bank city of Hebron and opened fire with heavy machine guns early Monday, killing seven people, witnesses and Palestinian security sources said.
The Israeli army said it was responding to a series of attacks it believed originated from the Hebron area, including a raid Saturday at a nearby Jewish settlement in which a five-year-old girl and three other Israelis were killed.
“The army launched an operation in the city focusing on the arrest of terrorists and searches for munitions. This operation is expected to end shortly and is not intended as a strike against the Palestinian Authority,” it said in a statement.
Hebron, where 400 Jewish settlers live in heavily guarded enclaves among 120,000 Palestinians, was the only major West Bank city not reoccupied during a crushing Israeli offensive that started a month ago and began winding down last week.
Witnesses said tanks and armored vehicles, supported by helicopter gunships, entered Hebron from two directions before dawn.
They said seven people were killed and several others wounded during the incursion. The army said its troops were coming under Palestinian fire but had not sustained casualties.
Israeli forces were conducting house-to-house searches and arresting suspects, Palestinian security sources said.
The White House and State Department had no immediate comment on the Hebron action, which followed an attack Saturday by Palestinian gunmen on a Jewish settlement near Hebron in which four Israelis were killed.
“This has been a hopeful day for the region and we must continue to press forward to peace,” Bush told reporters Sunday at his ranch. He said Arafat must take decisive steps to “condemn and thwart terrorist activities.”
The deal to end the month-long standoff was reached after intensive negotiations involving Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, who met Bush Thursday and warned him that U.S.-Arab relations were being threatened by Arab anger toward a United States perceived as biased toward Israel.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told a news conference in Houston Sunday, “This breaking of the impasse presents us with the opportunity to move forward forthwith and expeditiously toward negotiating for a permanent political settlement. Time is of the essence.”
Bush said negotiators were “making good progress” toward ending an Israeli-Palestinian standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
