Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said on Monday that Israel "crossed all red lines" by reoccupying the West Bank town of Tulkarm with army tanks and troops early in the day.
Arafat told reporters at his blockaded headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah that the Israeli action "is a very dangerous one and an implementation of the Israeli aggression plan on the Palestinians."
"They (Israelis) have crossed all red lines and our people cannot stand with their eyes closed to these Israeli attempts, and the proof of this is the strong and firm steadfastness of our people in Tulkarm," said Arafat.
Dozens of Israeli tanks backed by helicopters took over the West Bank town of Tulkarm before dawn Monday. Afterwards, a curfew was imposed in the town and dozens of suspected Palestinian militants were arrested.
It is the first time that Israeli troops took control of an entire Palestinian city since the start of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000.
Palestinian security sources said that at least 18 Palestinians were arrested in the house-to-house searches in Tulkarm, most of them are activists of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
Arafat's top aide Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) would file a complaint to the United Nations Security Council and demand the council convene urgently to discuss the Israeli action.
"Israel would be completely responsible for reoccupying Tulkarm," Abu Rudeineh said, warning that "the Israeli military escalation and aggression on the Palestinians would bring the entire region to a wider cycle of violence."
(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2002)
