Norwich Bulletin · 10 May 2002

CP-2002-141

Gaza braces for Israeli attack

By RAVI NESSMAN

Scan 860 × 313 pixels

Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM — Tanks were poised outside Gaza and Israel called up military reservists Thursday ahead of an expected retaliatory attack for Palestinian suicide bombings, even as a deal was reached to end the standoff at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity.

Palestinians arrested 16 members of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that claimed it carried out a deadly suicide attack earlier this week, a first sign that Yasser Arafat was taking action against terror groups. Tanks were parked off Gaza, home base of Hamas, and Israeli forces around the strip were being beefed up Thursday.

But Hamas leaders in Gaza — a sliver of Mediterranean coastline two-thirds of which is under Palestinian autonomy — said they were going about life as usual. Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin went ahead with the afternoon wedding reception for one of his seven daughters, his son Mohammed said.

A Yassin deputy, university lecturer Mahmoud Zahar, said he was staying at home to prepare exams and a Hamas spokesman, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, said his schedule was filled with television interviews. Mohammed Dahlan, Yasser Arafat’s security chief in Gaza, said the Palestinians were expecting an attack.

“Everyone is prepared and our people know how to confront the occupation,” said Dahlan, who has been in the West Bank town of Ramallah for months. “We said this before, and we mean it now — if the occupation forces carry out an aggression, we will face this aggression.”

Nativity deal Late in the day, an Israeli official said a deal had been reached whereby 13 suspected militants inside Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity would be divided among several countries. The Cypriot foreign minister and Palestinian sources said the militants would be taken first to Cyprus and later elsewhere.

Under the deal to end the 38-day standoff at the traditional birthplace of Jesus, Italy and Spain would take some of the militants, while the remainder would be spread among at least four other countries, the Israeli official said. Others inside the church would be allowed to go free.

Also Thursday, the Israeli Cabinet approved unspecified reprisals in response to Tuesday’s bombing in a pool hall in a Tel Aviv suburb.

How this transcription was made

SEPARATE record from the two-scan Ledger article on this slide, although it is the SAME Associated Press story by the same reporter on the same day. Front-page banner, nine narrow columns, with a subhead “Nativity deal” partway across. This version is LONGER than the Ledger’s and contains material the Ledger cut. The scan is a low-resolution strip of the top of the page and some line-ends run past its right edge; where I could not read a line with certainty I have left it out of the excerpt rather than guess, and the excerpt below is therefore partial. — Folio line across the top of the front page: “…e 130 A Gannett Newspaper FRIDAY, MAY 10, 2002 NorwichBulletin.com 50 cents/Newsstand”, with “Serving eastern Connecticut since 1791” above it. 10 May 2002 was a Friday. The masthead name is not in the strip but “NorwichBulletin.com” is printed in it, which matches Maria’s label. The volume number at the far left reads “…e 130” and is cut.

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