MIDDLE EAST: The Israeli tanks rumbled into Qalkilya in the early hours of yesterday morning. Further south, in Bethlehem's Dehaishe refugee camp, soldiers were also on the move.
Replicating the procedures they had followed last weekend in Tulkarm refugee camp, the troops took over key vantage points, and then began house-to-house searches - looking for gunmen from the Tanzim units of President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, and the Islamic militants who recruit and train suicide bombers.
On Saturday night, one such gunman had killed two people in a hotel in Netanya, a short drive from Qalkilya, and one such bomber had killed 11 Israelis in a Jerusalem café. Late on Sunday night, another gunman opened fire at a banquet hall in southern Israel, but his gun jammed and he was overpowered after wounding a teenage boy.
In both Qalkilya and Dehaishe, hundreds of men were ordered to gather in central squares. They were told to strip off their jackets - so that no weaponry or explosives could be concealed - and empty their pockets. Then, one at a time, they were called forward to have their identity papers checked by soldiers. Many were then handcuffed and blindfolded, prior to further questioning. In all, over 1,000 men were detained in the two camps. In Tulkarm, 1,300 had been arrested, with all but a few dozen subsequently released.
An aide to Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon professed himself "prepared to take the criticism" if the mass round-up and arrest policy prevented "even one terrorist attack." And criticism there was, led by Israel's own B'Tselem human rights group, which called the process "totally humiliating and degrading". The Palestinian Authority President, Mr Arafat attempted to draw comparisons between the Israeli army and the Nazis.
In Qalkilya, a Palestinian policeman and a civilian were killed in exchanges of fire; two more Palestinians were killed when the army moved into Gaza's Bureij refugee camp; another man was shot by troops near Gaza's border fence with Israel, and a sixth Palestinian, was shot dead near the West Bank village of Yatta, after ignoring an army call to halt and trying to evade a roadblock, Israeli officials said.
Mr Sharon has indicated that the refugee camp raids will continue so long as Palestinian bombers and gunmen are targeting Israelis. But his Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, said he believed the incursions should stop. "It's clear that there's no military solution," he said. Those on the far-right calling for the use of more force were deluding themselves. "Who are they going to defeat?" he asked. "The Palestinian people?"
Mr Peres held talks yesterday with top Palestinian officials - with the new Saudi peace initiative high on the agenda - and was crucial in persuading Mr Sharon to lift a three-month ban on Mr Arafat leaving Ramallah. The Palestinian leader, who has met Mr Sharon's demand to arrest all those directly involved in last October's assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, must still seek Israeli permission to travel overseas.