Israeli troops pull out of Nablus after 4-day sweep

Israel doesn't think the Palestinian security services are ready yet to quell militant groups and therefore conducts its own operations against West Bank extremists, but Palestinian officials complained Israel's tactics are heavy-handed.

"The current Israeli operation aims to heat up the atmosphere before Bush's visit," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told al-Najah Radio on Friday. "They are trying to sabotage the Palestinian Authority's successes in the city."

Grenade canisters in the street
Tear gas and concussion grenade canisters littered the streets of the Old City, where dozens of shops had been forced open by explosives or chopped open by troops.

Hundreds of soldiers patrolling on foot or in jeeps had barged into homes and shops since Wednesday night. As food supplies dwindled, some 30,000 people in Nablus' center and Old City were placed under curfew, but the streets of the city of 170,000 had been largely deserted throughout the operation because residents were fearful of the raiding troops.

Twenty militants were arrested by Saturday afternoon, and the military reported discovering a hidden store of weapons with rocket-making materials, an explosives laboratory, an explosives belt and ammunition.

Before troops pulled out, Massoud Kalboneh, a 35-year-old construction worker, accused soldiers of roughing up his 5-year-old nephew after he dived under a bed, unaware that he was a child and thinking he was trying to escape. Because food supplies weren't able, Kalboneh said he and his family lived off stored cheese and olives, and baked their own bread.

"This was one of the most aggressive raids" Nablus has known, he said.

Nablus as Abbas' test case
Abbas' government has singled out Nablus as a test case of its program to impose law and order in the chaotic West Bank. The city is a center of militant and criminal activity, and has often been the target of Israeli raids and extended curfews.

The Palestinian government hopes to prove to Israel that by restoring order there, it is capable of undertaking the security responsibilities that go with statehood.

Ohood Yaish, a 52-year old social worker who has been trapped at home by the curfew, said she was surprised by the Israeli raid after the Palestinian Authority assured city residents that their own police were in control.

"All their reassurances were untrue," she said. "Israel is the one in control, it is the one that decides and it has decided that we should stay at home all this time."

After the raid ended, residents booed Nablus Gov. Jamal Muheisin as he approached the Old City because he symbolized the authorities they felt had failed them. Muheisin quickly left the area.

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