JERUSALEM – Israeli tanks and troops swept into two more West Bank towns last night, and police said they had averted a major suicide bombing in Jerusalem.
Authorities said the 4-day-old crackdown on terrorism had already resulted in more than 700 arrests – and they have dozens more suspects trapped in sites such as Yasser Arafat’s besieged headquarters.
Israeli troops established control over the West Bank town of Qalqilya yesterday, and moved into two other terrorist strongholds, Tulkarem and Bethlehem, last night.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told special U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni Sunday night that no one wanted for terrorism will be allowed to escape from the Ramallah area.
Israeli military and secret service officials believe as many as 70 suspected terrorists are hiding out in the nearby town of Beitunya, in the offices of Jibril Rajoub, Arafat’s chief of security in the West Bank.
Others on Israeli wanted lists are believed to have taken refuge inside Arafat’s headquarters, which Israeli troops began to seal off with barbed wire yesterday.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said his government’s decision on Thursday to “isolate” Arafat was a mistake.
When he asked Sharon to allow foreign diplomats and others to see Arafat, Sharon rebuffed him, sources said.
“You had a chance to vote against isolating him at the Cabinet meeting Thursday and you didn’t do it,” Sharon said. “I will not bring this subject up again.”
Meanwhile, Jerusalem Police Chief Micky Levy credited one of his officers with averting a major attack when he stopped a car at a checkpoint.
When asked for ID, the driver detonated a powerful bomb at his feet, killing himself and gravely wounding the officer.
Levy said it appeared the car was headed to carry out a bombing in the heart of Jerusalem.
In other developments:
* Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld harshly criticized Iran, Iraq and Syria for “inspiring and financing a culture of political murder and suicide bombing” in the Mideast.
He cited reports that Iraq had offered stipends of tens of thousands of dollars to families of Palestinian suicide bombers.
“They’re running around encouraging people to be suicide bombers and offering – I think I saw something like $10,000 per family,” Rumsfeld told reporters in Washington.
* Anti-Israel protests broke out in Libya, Jordan, Sudan, Lebanon and Yemen. One of the largest was in Cairo where 30 protesters were arrested and nine police officers were hit by stones near the Israeli Embassy.
In Tripoli, Libya’s leader Moammar Khadafy led a march and asked Arab nations bordering Israel to allow his troops in to join the Palestinian uprising.
* A 57-nation Islamic world conference was divided over whether suicide bombers were terrorists or freedom fighters.
In a speech opening the conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad urged Muslim countries to condemn any attacks on civilians as acts of terror.
But other foreign ministers argued that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were justified in using suicide as a weapon against the Israeli “occupiers.”