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Talks rumored as Israeli troops comb West Bank for militants©Associated PressAugust 4, 2002 NABLUS, West Bank -- Israeli soldiers pried open boarded-up shops and searched houses in Nablus on Saturday, pressing their latest siege to root out militant cells Israel says are responsible for recent attacks. Despite the crackdown, high-level talks between Israel and the Palestinians were expected later this week -- including a possible meeting involving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, officials and Israeli news reports said. Bulldozers piled up soil and rubble to block the entrances to Nablus' Old City while tanks and armored vehicles crawled through its empty streets, enforcing a strict curfew on the city of about 150,000. Witnesses said several people were arrested Saturday in addition to the 50 rounded up Friday, the first day of the army crackdown which followed two bombings in Jerusalem last week. Armed with hammers and metal bars, Israeli soldiers wound through the casbah's narrow alleys, opening shuttered shop fronts and searching houses. In one instance, filmed by Associated Press Television News, a Palestinian man led the way as troops entered an alley and searched a shop. The circumstances of the search were not clear. Palestinians and human rights groups have alleged that Israeli troops have forced Palestinian civilians to lead troops in potentially dangerous searches -- a charge Israel has denied. An army spokesman, Olivier Rafowicz, denied the man was being used as a human shield and said the search was part of Israel's ongoing war on terrorism. "The army is acting with the utmost caution in order to differentiate between innocent civilians and terrorists," he said. In other violence, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian in the West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian witnesses said. They said the troops were reimposing the curfew and shot 40-year-old Abdel Rahim Tawil in the head while he was driving a truck. The army said it was checking the report. The remains of American student Marla Bennett, 24, of San Diego, who was killed in Wednesday's bombing at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, were to be returned to the United States early today. The remains of two other Americans were returned Friday, while an Israeli-American was buried in Jerusalem. The remains of an American-French citizen were to be returned to France on Monday. The five, as well as two Israelis, were killed when a bomb exploded in the cafeteria of Hebrew University's Mount Scopus campus. The militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for an Israeli air strike on Gaza that killed 15, nine of them children. Despite the recent attacks and Israel's stepped-up siege, Israeli officials suggested Saturday that Sharon was willing to meet with the new Palestinian interior minister, Abdel Razak Yehiyeh. Yehiyeh, meanwhile, said he also planned to meet with Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer before a Palestinian delegation heads to Washington on Wednesday. Also Saturday, a former Arafat adviser, Bassam Abu Sharif, launched a political party he said would promote democracy, implement reforms in the Palestinian government and fight corruption. The Palestine Democratic Party would serve as "constructive opposition" to the Palestinian Authority, Abu Sharif said from Amman, Jordan.
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