OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – Israel plans to step up arrests of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to prevent a rising tide of low-intensity conflict and civil unrest from turning into an uprising, security sources say. “There is a certain (Palestinian) awakening,” the source said. “As a consequence a decision was taken within the security establishment to increase intelligence activity and arrests among members of Hamas or activists against Israel,” he added. “It started in the past few days and will increase.” Israeli forces raided the West Bank city of Jenin in search of a suspected Palestinian fighters Thursday, setting off clashes with residents who threw rocks and petrol bombs at them, an Israeli security source said. It was the second time this week that Israeli forces had entered the Jenin area to detain suspects. On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers disguised as Palestinians raided the village of Tamoun, arresting a member of the Islamic Jihad group. Several dozen Palestinians were injured in ensuing clashes, medical officials said. In Thursday's incident, the soldiers clashed with some 500 Palestinians, forcing them out of Jenin, the security source said. An elderly Palestinian woman was slightly injured by a dog used by Israeli forces during the operation. A military source said a Palestinian was arrested in Thursday's raid - though not the suspect in whose pursuit Israel had launched the operation. The source did not give further details on the detainee. Jenin is under the control of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under interim peace accords with Israel. Israel has reserved the right to carry out its own operations against militants in the West Bank. Ghassan Khatib, a veteran of the first intifada, who later became a Palestinian cabinet minister and now teaches at the West Bank's Birzeit University, does not see a guiding hand in the current round of clashes. He considers as “spontaneous” the daily confrontations between Palestinian farmers and Jewish settlers, the hurling of rocks and petrol bombs at Israeli motorists in Palestinian areas and the clashes with troops. “I don't think that it can be connected to any specific event; it's been building up gradually,” he said. “I think it's a result of the dangerous combination of a complete absence of any political horizon together with serious economic and financial crisis that is leading to increased unemployment and poverty,” he added, noting an increase in settlement activity. “In my view the situation is not sustainable,” he said. Israel's Shin Bet domestic security service tied an upswing in clashes to November's eight-day battle between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. “In response to the operation, Jerusalem and the (West Bank) also saw an increase in the level of violence,” Shin Bet said in its monthly summary for November. It recorded 122 Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank, compared with 39 in October, and 44 incidents in Jerusalem, up from 31 the month before. – Agencies
