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Israel assesses the damage
Defensive Shield has met many targets, but some say it will simply ricochet into more violence.
JERUSALEM
As the West Bank continues to smolder, Israeli authorities are assessing their military operation there, amid continued international condemnation.
While Israel has issued official televised apologies here for the deaths of innocent civilians it maintains that its incursion into the Palestinian territories was justified. Within days, says Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the mission will be complete, its goals met.
Launched March 29 in response to a spate of brutal suicide bombings in Israeli cities, Operation Defensive Shield was primarily targeted, officials have said, at eradicating terrorist infrastructure by arresting those suspected of involvement in terror operations, and hitting their bases. In addition, Israeli officials acknowledge, the idea was to show the Palestinians that not only does Israel have the military might to fight back against terror it also has the political will to do so.
"We have a right to self-defense, and no one has a right to condemn us because we want to defend our citizens," says Israeli President Moshe Katzav. Since the start of the second Intifada in September 2000, 470 Israelis have been killed in terror attacks. Up to three times as many Palestinians are estimated to have been killed in the same time period.
The number of Palestinian civilians fatalities during Defensive Shield is hotly debated, ranging from Israeli estimates of dozens to as many as 100, to Palestinian figures of up to 500 in the incursion into the Jenin refugee camp alone.
In the course of the offensive, Israel has arrested 5,600 Palestinians, of whom, say security sources, at least 387 were previously known terror suspects on Most Wanted lists. Some detainees have been released, and, the sources say, by next week only some 1,200 suspects will remain in custody.
High-profile detainees include Nasser Awais of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade; Thabet Mardawi, an Islamic Jihad leader; Sheikh Ali Safuri of Islamic Jihad; Jamal Akhuil of Fatah; and Bilal Barghouti of Hamas. Between them, these five men are accused of arming and dispatching suicide bombers responsible for more than 40 deaths.
The biggest fish caught during the campaign is undoubtedly Marwan Barghouti, a senior activist in Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement who Israel claims also commands the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Israel says Barghouti was directly involved in two deadly suicide bombings, a June attack on a Tel Aviv disco and an August blast outside a Jerusalem pizza parlor and has encouraged scores of others.
Barghouti, once considered to be a possible moderate alternative to Arafat and feted by the Israelis, denies the allegations against him, saying he is a political and not a military leader. He is being interrogated in Jerusalem and reportedly has not been cooperating with the police.
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