Israeli Troops Entirely Occupied Nablus

After a week military campaign on Palestinian towns, Israeli troops arrested some 1,100 Palestinians at West Bank occupation zone till 4th.

Israeli troops entirely took over Nablus, the largest Palestinian town in northern part of West Bank of Jordan River, and continued searching houses for terrorists. Israeli forces have taken over Ramallah, Qalqiliya, Jenin, Tulkarem, and Bethlehem out of 7 major Palestinian towns leaving Jericho and Hebron.

Lebanon government announced on the 3rd that Syria would relocate troops in Lebanon to strategic points. An officer of Lebanon force said that Syria army units will move to strategic Dahr el-Baidar mountainous area 25 km east to current post. The announcement of the redeploys of Syrian troops came out under the state of tension toned up by the threat of Syria to Israel.

However, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri stressed, “ the redeployment is not related to Israel-Palestine conflicts”. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Syria and Lebanon to ease the tensions in order to avoid Israeli-Palestinian conflicts developing to the `2nd Middle East War`.

Jong-Dae Ha orionha@donga.com