Israelis Arrest at Least 20 in Palestinian Camp Raid : West Bank Action Taken After Attacks on Passing Vehicles, Recent Clashes of Opposing Factions

In the largest such action on the West Bank in months, Israeli soldiers and border guards raided the Dahaisha Palestinian camp near Bethlehem early Saturday, arresting more than 20 residents of the refugee area.

The action was taken after an upsurge of rock-throwing and of Molotov cocktail attacks on vehicles passing near the camp. However, Israeli security sources and camp residents both said that the raid also grew out of recent clashes within Dahaisha between Palestinian groups cooperating with the Israeli occupation authorities and those who oppose such activity as collaboration.

Residents said that security forces carried out the raid late Friday night and early Saturday morning, searching more than 40 homes. Unusually heavy military patrols inside the camp and on the main highway that borders it continued Saturday evening, they added.

Kadafi Sympathizer Held

Among people arrested was Hamdi Faraj, a journalist for Al Mithaq, a leftist newspaper that supports the line of Col. Moammar Kadafi, the Libyan leader. For the last two years, Faraj has been confined to the area within the 85-acre camp by order of Israeli military authorities.

Dahaisha, which borders the main road leading from Jerusalem to West Bank Jewish settlements in the south, has long been considered the most volatile of 19 Palestinian camps in the occupied area. It is home to 6,000 Arabs.

Israeli security sources said that six Molotov cocktails have been thrown at passing Israeli cars from within the camp in recent days. In addition, they said, there have been dozens of incidents of stone-throwing.

Last Wednesday, a bus on the way to a Jewish settlement near Hebron was fired upon from ambush not far from Dahaisha. Two Israelis were wounded in the incident. As the result of a firebombing attack, an Israeli driver died last Thursday of severe burns.

The attacks have angered militant Jewish settlers on the West Bank, such as Rabbi Moshe Levinger, a West Bank ultranationalist Jew. The militants have demanded harsher action against stone-throwers and warned that if the government does not act, they will take the law into their own hands.

Security sources said that in addition to attacks on passing vehicles, there have been a rash of other violent incidents inside Dahaisha during the last three weeks--including the attempted murder of Jaber Yassin, a resident whom Palestinian nationalists accuse of being an Israeli collaborator.

Camp residents confirmed the internal strife and said that it had spilled over into neighboring Bethlehem one day last month, when the factions clashed in the center of town using knives and clubs.

One resident charged that the real reason behind Saturday’s raid was an Israeli desire to aid Yassin in his battle against the Palestinian extremists.

“The feeling inside the camp is very bitter today,” another said. “I don’t know if there will be (more) trouble or not.”