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Israel launches massive raid on Ramallah

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA Dec. 1. The Israeli army today launched a massive raid on the West Bank city of Ramallah, arresting 30 Palestinians and casting a shadow on a meeting of Palestinian groups in Cairo that aims to identify elements of a possible truce deal with Israel.

Palestinian officials said an estimated 60 Israeli tanks, jeeps and armoured personnel carriers were involved in the unusually heavy Israeli incursion since dawn in the Palestinian West bank city of Ramallah, where the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority President, Yasser Arafat, are located. The stated objective of the raid is to dismantle the support infrastructure of the extremist Palestinian group Hamas that has spearheaded several suicide bombings inside Israel.

Palestinian officials were quick to point to the fall-out of the Israeli move. The Palestinian Cabinet member, Saeb Erekat, called the incursion counter-productive, and said it could undermine the truce negotiations in Cairo this week as well as preparations for a summit meeting between the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, and the Palestinian Premier, Ahmed Qurei.

The Israeli intrusion is also seen as sending a negative signal to the supporters of the unofficial Geneva accords that were being unveiled in the Swiss resort city on Monday. Authored by teams led by a former Israeli and Palestinian minister, Yossi Beilin and Abed Rabbo, they include all the ingredients of a final peace deal between Palestinians and Israelis. The plan calls for the creation of an independent state of Palestine, resulting from an almost complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, shared sovereignty over Jerusalem and a renunciation by Palestinians of any right of Palestinian refugees to resettle in Israel. Besides, the raid coincides with this week's exertions by a U.S. envoy, William Burns, to revive the peace "road map" that aims to establish an independent Palestinian state by 2005.

In order to advance the "road map", Mr. Burns has advocated an early summit meeting between Mr. Sharon and Mr. Qurei and the dismantlement of illegal hill top settler outposts.

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