29 Palestinians arrested in Israeli raid
Palestine, Politics, 8/5/1997

Israel apprehended 29 Palestinians today in a quick pass through the West Bank.

An Israeli statement said the Palestinians apprehended over the last night were suspected of being involved in "enmity activities."

Israel has also destroyed homes built by Arabs in East Jerusalem, wiping out two houses and several shanties on August 4.

Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat called the Israeli measures "collective punishment," aimed at humiliating the Palestinian people.

Jibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian preventive security in the West Bank, said the Palestinians were doing their best to prevent attacks and press Israel to ease the restrictions on Palestinian area.

"The Israeli measures have placed the entire region in crisis. Perhaps all of us will pay dearly for those blasts," he said. Also he added that "the only loser is the one who pushed the region to the edge of explosion."

Ahmed Tibi, Arafat¹s advisor on Israeli affairs, said Netanyahu should apologize to Arafat for blaming the Palestinian leader for the bombing and that Netanyahu cannot hang his failure on Arafat.

Meantime political movements have started to prevent the violence in the area and to try to get all sides back to the way of peace. Europe¹s envoy to the Middle East, Miguel Moratinos, met with Arafat and said he would ask Netanyahu to lift the tough measures. US envoy Dennis Ross was expected in the region later in the week to try to get the two sides back to the table of the negotiations.

Previous Stories:
  Emergency in self-rule areas - Arafat declares   (8/1/1997)

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