ARAB-ISRAEL RELATIONS - Feb 25 - Israel Puts Nablus Under Curfew To Fight Militants.

The Israeli Army put the West Bank city of Nablus under curfew in one of the largest military operations there in two years. The Israeli forces discovered a second explosives laboratory in Nablus in two days. It contained pipe bombs, explosive materials and a hand-held guided missile and launcher that apparently had belonged to the Israeli Army, Major Avital Leibovich said. It was not immediately clear whether the missile had been stolen or purchased. The operation began Feb 24 and was intensified before Feb 25 dawn, with nearly 100 Israeli jeeps and armored vehicles moving into Nablus, blocking the main roads of the city. Troops began sweeps of the closely packed old city, or casbah, with its covered markets and small apartments. Some Palestinians responded by throwing stones and chunks of concrete or firing weapons; two Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded and six Palestinians were wounded, mostly by rubber bullets, Palestinian medics said. Two Palestinians were arrested and more than 30 detained for questioning. Most of them were released by Feb 25 nightfall, Leibovich said. Nablus, one of the largest cities in the West Bank, is a center for Palestinian militants, and the Israeli Army regularly patrols there. But this operation, the army said, was set up to "trim back" militant groups that had been stockpiling materiel and to arrest wanted militants. The militant Palestinian faction Hamas, which is more secretive in the Israeli-occupied West Bank than in the Gaza Strip, has been organising in Nablus and recruiting members for a West Bank version of its parallel police force in Gaza, known as the Executive Force. About 10,000 people in the center of Nablus were said to be under curfew as the search of the casbah continued. Schools and colleges canceled classes. The army also took over local television and radio stations, ordering people to remain indoors and warning that the clampdown would remain in effect for several days, Palestinian residents said. Since the start of 2006, the Israelis have found nine explosives laboratories in the West Bank, six of them in Nablus, Leibovich said. The Israeli incursion was the largest in the West Bank since a raid into Ramallah in early January when four Palestinians died. Palestinian officials said it would damage relations with Israel. "We condemn this military incursion", said Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator and aide to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who is with the Fatah faction. "This will undermine the efforts that are being made to sustain the cease-fire with Israel", In a statement, Abbas said, "This aggression by the Israeli occupation government is like cutting the road forward after all our efforts to find peace". In Gaza, Hamas officials said the raid was intended to undermine efforts to create a unity Palestinian government including Hamas and Fatah ministers. "We question why these military campaigns are increasing now", said Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led government. "This indicates the Israeli government is trying to turn what was agreed upon in Mecca into a failure". A Hamas legislator also criticised Jordan's ruler, King Abdullah, for asking that a unity government meet international requirements and recognise Israel. "I asked myself, 'What did the king offer to lift the siege on the Palestinian people and was he a part of the Arabic system or a part of another one?'" said the legislator, Yehia Moussa. In an interview broadcast Feb 24 night with Israeli Channel 2, Abdullah said, "There is Arabic and international harmony, and the upcoming Palestinian government must abide by this harmony, especially the demands of the quartet". The so-called Quartet - comprising the US, EU, Russia and the UN - has demanded that a new Palestinian government recognise the right of Israel to exist, forswear violence and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements to end its isolation and be qualified for direct budget support. But aid has continued to the Palestinian people in amounts in 2006 that exceeded the level of 2005.