Israel Raids West Bank, Seizes Suspects

Israeli armor and infantry swept into a tiny Palestinian village near here Wednesday on a mission to root out militants, including suspects in the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister. At least six Palestinians were killed and nearly a dozen others captured.

The escalation came as Israel again ignored emphatic demands from the United States to withdraw from Palestinian-ruled territory it began occupying last week. In all, raids across the West Bank on Wednesday left at least 10 Palestinians dead and 20 arrested.

While the U.S., Russia and Europe condemned Israel’s incursions, the Israeli commander for the West Bank, Brig. Gen. Gershon Yitzhak, said he is prepared to remain in Palestinian territory for as long as it takes to capture “several hundred” additional suspects.

There was speculation, however, that the sharp upsurge in Israeli military actions might presage a withdrawal--a final flurry before operations are scaled back. The capture or slaying of the killers of hard-line Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi would accomplish one of the chief goals cited by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in launching the incursions.

Battles raged again in Bethlehem on Wednesday, and Palestinians were killed, wounded or arrested in at least four other West Bank towns.

In the deadliest incident, Israeli troops and tanks, backed by combat helicopters, raided the village of Beit Rima at about 2 a.m. in what the military said was an operation to seize suspected militants and members of the group that killed Zeevi.

At least six Palestinians--perhaps as many as nine--were killed and 11 were captured in Beit Rima. There were no Israeli casualties, an army spokeswoman said.

Israelis and Palestinians offered contradictory accounts of what happened, and it was impossible to verify casualty figures, because the Israeli army sealed off Beit Rima and prohibited journalists from entering, holding them at a roadblock here in Nabil Saleh, about two miles away. Ambulances and rescue workers also were blocked.

The Palestinian Cabinet branded the raid a “criminal massacre” to be added to “Sharon’s record of slaughter.”

Villagers reached by telephone described a military operation that lasted until 5:30 a.m., with heavy shooting from tanks, troops and helicopters.

Villagers said the troops met little or no resistance.

Even after the guns fell silent, the village of 4,000 tucked behind rolling hills of olive groves was kept under curfew as troops patrolled streets, demolished buildings and made arrests.

After nightfall Wednesday, villager Abdel Salam Rimawi, reached by telephone, said he had heard a large explosion and the power had gone out. Residents were confined to their homes, and troops were patrolling the streets, said Rimawi, an employee of the Palestinian Authority Information Ministry.

Early today, the army withdrew from Beit Rima.

Yitzhak, the army commander, said Beit Rima officials were given a half-hour’s notice of the operation and told to keep everyone indoors. He said his troops came under fire at the entrance to Beit Rima, where most of the dead fell, and from two houses. By his count, five armed Palestinians were killed; Palestinians later identified them as police officers. The army later said a sixth person was also killed.

Yitzhak acknowledged that he kept ambulances out, but he said Israeli army medics had attended to all the wounded, with the two most serious being transported to an Israeli hospital.

Palestinian Red Crescent officials said the army delivered the bodies of the police officers to Ramallah Hospital late Wednesday afternoon. According to the officials, the army said four more bodies of villagers killed in the assault were still at an Israeli hospital.

Yitzhak said the 11 people arrested in Beit Rima included members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the militant group whose armed wing claimed responsibility for killing Zeevi in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of its leader. Members of militant Islamic groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad--who Israel says were involved in shooting attacks on Israelis--also were arrested.

One man captured Wednesday is accused of participating in Zeevi’s killing, although the shooter remains at large, a spokesman for Sharon said. Separately, security officials announced that two other suspects in the assassination, including the man who allegedly drove the getaway car and led investigators to Beit Rima, were arrested six days ago.

In Beit Rima, Rimawi said he, his wife and their 1-year-old daughter were awakened by gunfire about 2 a.m. He rushed his wife and child to his brother’s home, thinking it might be safer there, “and there was shooting from all directions.”

Soldiers came to the door and took away his brother, Jamal Rimawi, a nurse. “The soldier pointed a gun to my head and said, ‘We need the doctor,’ and they took my brother,” Rimawi said.

Hundreds of soldiers participated in the operation and demolished four homes belonging to activists from Hamas and the Popular Front, residents said.

In addition to the casualties in Beit Rima, three Palestinians were killed in the town of Tulkarm before dawn Wednesday. Palestinians said it was an ambush, but Israel said the men died in a gun battle after Israeli forces demolished the home of a militia commander.

In Bethlehem, tanks again charged up and down Manger Street and traded fire with scores of Palestinian militiamen. One man, 55-year-old Issa Ali, was killed when an Israeli tank fired into his car as he drove home from the market.

The Holy Family maternity hospital, where about 60 orphans were sheltered in a corridor, again came under fire, as did Bethlehem University.

Loosely organized bands of militiamen fired assault rifles and submachine guns from the vicinity of the university, drawing ferocious Israeli tank fire in response.

In its other operations Wednesday, the army said it seized six Hamas activists in a village east of Jenin and a seventh in Hebron, as well as two other people said to be plotting a terrorist attack in a village near Ramallah.

Meanwhile, suspected Jewish extremists shot and wounded six Palestinian laborers near Hebron. One was in critical condition.