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Zakaria Zubeidi (right), leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin, and other militants shoot in the air during a rally demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners June 21, 2005 |
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Israel security forces arrested 52 Islamic Jihad terrorists overnight in its first big crackdown against terror since February.
The sweep followed a rash of deadly attacks by the terrorist group on Israeli military and civilian targets in recent days. The spike in violence has threatened recent efforts to coordinate Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip with the Palestinians, and stoked fears that a renewed chance for peacemaking might be lost.
After Palestinian terrorists declared an informal cease-fire early this year, Israel agreed to go after only those on the brink of carrying out attacks.
But with Islamic Jihad stepping up its activities this week, killing two Israelis, the military decided it will no longer limit its operations to "ticking bombs," but will go after anyone affiliated with the group, said Lt. Col. Erez Winner, a senior Israeli commander in the West Bank.
"We operated against this group in a restrained manner," he said, both to preserve the calm and because many members of Islamic Jihad were hiding in Tulkarem, a West Bank town that Israel handed over to Palestinian police as part of the cease-fire.
But "Islamic Jihad has taken itself absolutely out of the (cease-fire) agreement with its attacks, and so from our view, we are operating fully against them, as we did before," Winner said. "Anyone we know who is affiliated with this organization is a legitimate target."
He said he didn't foresee more mass arrests, because the overnight sweep netted many of the terrorists Israel has been watching.
Khadr Adnan, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in the West Bank said if the Palestinian Authority and Egypt, which brokered the cease-fire declaration, don't take action to ensure Israeli commitment to the truce, "then we will consider ourselves to be outside (it), and will call upon all Palestinian factions to do the same."
Palestinian terrorists launched a homemade rocket at an Israeli settlement in Gaza on Tuesday morning, and opened fire three times at soldiers guarding Gaza settlements, the army said. Overnight, seven mortar shells were fired at Gaza settlements.
Islamic Jihad is the smaller of the two main terrorsit groups in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. In addition to this week's violence, the group carried out the deadliest single attack since the truce declaration, a Feb. 25 bombing of a Tel Aviv nightclub that killed five Israelis.
The larger terrorist group, Hamas, has been relatively quiet as it tries to cement a political following ahead of Palestinian legislative elections later this year.
Israel has been very critical of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' strategy for reining in extremists, which favors persuasion over confrontation. At their meeting later Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was expected to demand that Abbas clamp down on terror, as he is obligated to do by the roadmap.
The meeting follows a visit several days ago by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who tried to bolster prospects for a successful Sharon-Abbas meeting and a peaceful pullout.
In Washington, U.S. officials called on Abbas to take action against militants.
"We strongly condemn the terror actions of the last several days, directed at taking the lives of Israelis and sabotaging efforts for peace," U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday. "Now is the time for the Palestinian Authority to act against terrorists."
The AP contributed to this report.
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