Gaza Braces For Attack
With Israeli tanks massing on the borders of Gaza, armed Palestinians patrolled the streets of the coastal strip Friday and reinforced ramparts meant to keep out Israeli tanks, while residents hoarded food and thronged bakeries.
However, Israel TV's Channel 2 reported that Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer decided to postpone the operation because of leaks about the army's plans to strike at Gaza in retaliation for a suicide bombing that killed 15 Israelis this week. Ben-Eliezer's adviser, Yarden Vatikai, would not confirm or deny the report.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, replying to a question about a possible incursion into Gaza, accused Israel of committing crimes against Palestinians.
"Our people are steadfast and will continue with all their power to defend our holy cities, Christian and Muslim places," he said at his West Bank headquarters.
In biblical Bethlehem, the standoff between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen at the Church of the Nativity ended Friday, with 13 suspected militants flown into European exile and 26 released into the Gaza Strip, where they received a heroes' welcome.
Israeli troops pulled out of Manger Square in three armored personnel carriers, signaling the end of a troop pullback from Bethlehem after 39 days of occupation.
Cheering Palestinian children ran toward the church and calls of "Allahu Akhbar," or "God is Greater" rang out from loudspeakers on mosques.
Meanwhile, a bomb went off in the southern Israeli city of Beersheva, 40 miles south of Jerusalem.
"Two terrorists ... threw a bomb or planted a bomb. One was captured and the other escaped and we are searching for him," said Yossi Koppel, the southern district police commander.
Spokesmen said at least four people were injured.
Speaking in Rome, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the aim of any military operation in Gaza would be "to reach points where we have had centers of terror in a very careful and measured way."
Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin seemed unconcerned as he was showered with kisses from well-wishers at his neighborhood mosque in Gaza City on Friday. He said he was not concerned about being targeted in a possible strike. "I am not afraid, because I only fear God," the 70-year-old Yassin who spent several years in Israeli jails told The Associated Press.
Palestinian naval officer Majdi Abu Moussa acknowledged that his lightly armed team of three would be ineffective against Israeli armor.
"We cannot do anything to them," said Abu Moussa. Wearing military fatigues and a black baseball cap with the word "smile" printed on the front, he said: "We shall report the arrival of the armor and retreat."
In the Shati refugee camp near Gaza City, Hassan Al-Najar squatted on a prayer mat as he read from the Quran, Islam's holy book, and listened to the news on the radio.
A father of 10 who became a security guard after high taxes forced him out of his taxi driving profession, the 70-year-old Al-Najar spoke proudly of the camp's "resistance" against Israel's 1967-1994 occupation of the Gaza Strip. But he sounded a note of resignation when asked about a possible Israeli attack on Gaza.
"What can we do? It would be different if we had anti-armor weapons, but we don't," said Al-Najar.
Gaza, a narrow strip of land on the Mediterranean, was captured by Israel from Egypt in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel handed most of Gaza, and parts of the West Bank, to Arafat's Palestinian Authority in 1994. But it still controls key roads and several enclaves where an estimated 7,000 Jewish settlers live among some 1.2 million Palestinians.
Gaza is one of the world's most densely populated areas and many believe that invading the strip on a scale similar to Israel's sweep through the West Bank last month in search of militants would result in casualties among civilians and Israeli troops.
The birthplace of the Palestinians' 1987-93 uprising against Israeli rule, Gaza has taken the brunt of Israeli attacks in the early stages of the 19-month-old Palestinian-Israeli violence.
In the Jebaliya refugee camp near Gaza City, a shantytown of 70,000, residents said Friday they would give Israel a fight if it invaded the camp.
In recent weeks, the gunmen have been taking up positions every evening behind sandbags and mounds of debris and rubble. On Friday afternoon, the only telltale sign of a possibly imminent battle was a bulldozer building a huge mound of sand at one of the camp's entrances.
In the West Bank town of Tulkarem, meanwhile, Israeli troops demolished a four-story building belonging to the family of a Hamas suicide bomber, Abdel Bassat Odeh, who blew himself up March 27 in a hotel in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya. Twenty-nine Israelis died in the attack that targeted diners assembled for the Passover Seder, the ritual meal that ushers in the weeklong Jewish holiday. The attack triggered Israel's West Bank offensive two days later.
Israeli troops imposed a curfew on the neighborhood where Odeh lived and blew up his family's home, making 21 people homeless. A three-story building next door was badly damaged and 50 residents had to leave it, Palestinian officials said.