And now, Hebron

Far from being over, Israel's offensive against Palestinian territories claimed a new victim this week: the long-beleaguered city of Hebron. Khaled Amayreh, in Jerusalem, reports
The Israeli army spared no force in reoccupying Hebron on 29 April. Close to 100 Israeli tanks and numerous armoured personnel carriers, backed by helicopter gunships, took the West Bank town, killing 11 Palestinians and injuring dozens of others.
The victims of the attack, most of them civilians, were killed when an Israeli Apache helicopter fired several missiles at their homes under the pretext that "gunmen" had taken refuge in the dwellings.
True to form, Israeli troops reportedly prevented medical personnel from reaching the wounded, some of whom eventually bled to death.
The Israeli army imposed a strict curfew on the approximately 200,000 Palestinians in Hebron and the towns in its vicinity.
The occupation forces also conducted house-to-house searches for weapons and "wanted" members of the resistance and political activists. The term "searches," however, proved to be somewhat of a misnomer.
"They crushed everything, they urinated in our dining room; they behaved like rabid dogs," said Leila Al-Qeik, describing the raid on her home.
"They blindfolded and handcuffed my husband and children for seven hours and threatened to kill us all."
At least 100 people were reported to have been arrested, among them individuals affiliated with the Al- Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Fatah's military wing, as well as students, doctors and other professionals.
The Israeli army said that more than 30 "wanted terrorists" were arrested.
The detainees, although handcuffed and blindfolded, were beaten before being whisked away to waiting buses that took them to detention camps throughout Israel, including the notorious camp at Kitseot in the Negev Desert, not far from the Egyptian border. Conditions at the camps are harsh and torture is commonplace. The detainees join an estimated 5,000 Palestinians arrested by the Israeli army since the beginning of its current offensive in the West Bank.
Also on 29 April, Israeli helicopter gunships attacked a Hebron complex housing a girls' boarding school and an orphanage run by the Islamic Charitable Society which Israel classifies as a "Hamas organisation."
Although no one was injured at the school, the girls, who huddled together in the lobby of the building during the attack, were so thoroughly terrified that many suffered severe shock trauma. The transport of the injured children to hospitals was hampered by the Israeli army which was shooting at anything moving in the streets.
"They are attacking orphanages and schools, and tomorrow they will tell the world that they are fighting terrorism. The Israelis are the true terrorists, they are the personification of terrorism in its ugliest form," said Fedwa Natshe, a teacher.
"There is no justification for sending warplanes to rain death on orphans. This is terror. This is savagery."
By Tuesday, Israeli troops had moved on to wreak havoc against older students. The army raided dormitories at Hebron University, arresting scores of students.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks besieged 30 Palestinian police officers at Palestinian Authority (PA) headquarters in Hebron. Princess Alya Hospital, too, was encircled by tanks.
Many Palestinians reported that Israeli soldiers were vandalising businesses and private property.
"They are doing in Hebron what they did in Ramallah a few weeks ago," said Majdi Maraqa, a local shopkeeper, alluding to widespread acts of vandalism by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank capital.
"They are looting and vandalising businesses and institutions; their aim is to destroy as much as they can."
The Israeli defence minister said that army "activity" in Hebron was a limited operation aimed at eradicating "terrorist infrastructure" and "arresting terrorists."
He said that the operation was in response to an earlier Hamas attack on the settlement of Adora, 15 kilometres west of Hebron, in which four Israeli settlers, including a young girl, were killed and six others wounded.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine initially claimed responsibility for the incident, but eventually it became clear that a Hamas guerrilla, Tareq Qafisha, carried out the assault. He was subsequently killed by the Israeli army.
Many Palestinians here are convinced that the Sharon government merely took the Adora incident as a pretext to invade the divided city with the aim of suppressing the uprising and further demoralising the Palestinians. The invasion, for many here, appears to have been in the cards all along as part of the Israeli plan "Operation Protective Shield."
Meanwhile, dozens of Israeli tanks re-entered Dura, 20 kilometres south-west of Hebron, and nearby villages and hamlets, reinstating a harsh curfew.
Palestinians in Dura reported that Israeli soldiers were raiding houses and smashing furniture and household appliances.
The reoccupation of Dura came only three days after Israeli tanks had pulled out of the town following a 17- day continuous curfew.
The deployment of tanks and armoured vehicles in Palestinian population centres from which the Israeli army had just withdrawn took place throughout the West Bank, from Qalqilya in the north to Dahiriya in the south.
Although the Israeli government has agreed to lift the siege against PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, it is still being uncooperative about allowing the UN fact-finding mission access to the devastated Jenin refugee camp.
On 29 April, a high-ranking Israeli army officer recommended that the government award the drivers of the military bulldozers that tore through the camp special "medals for valour and bravery."
The recommendation, which was reported on the Web site of the daily Yediot Ahranot, coincided with rumours and unconfirmed reports that the Israeli army may have secretly disposed of the bodies of many of the people killed at Jenin.
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