Israeli troops round up men, boys from camp

DHEISHEH REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank -- Hands on their heads, hundreds of Palestinian teen-age boys and men lined up silently Monday in the dusty yard of a stonecutting factory, waiting to be handcuffed and blindfolded by Israeli soldiers.

Before dawn, soldiers sweeping through this refugee camp announced over bullhorns, in broken Arabic, that all males in Dheisheh between the ages of 15 and 45 must leave their homes and surrender. More than 500 were detained, the army said.

A similar scene played out Monday in the West Bank town of Qalqilya, where witnesses said soldiers assembled hundreds of men in a local school yard.

Over the weekend, about 750 Palestinians in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the northern West Bank were detained and questioned at gunpoint, though most have been released.

During the past two weeks, Israeli soldiers have raided several West Bank refugee camps considered strongholds for militants. The raids have caused heavy Palestinian casualties but have been largely unsuccessful in hunting down wanted militants.

The seemingly new strategy has been criticized by human rights groups.

"It is a totally humiliating and degrading process," said Lior Yavne, spokesman for the Israeli group Betselem.

Israel says the arrests are necessary to stop would-be gunmen and suicide bombers from entering Israel. About 50 of 500 people rounded up Saturday in the Tulkarem camp were wanted by Israel, the army said.

Preventive measure

"If for the price of these checks which we are conducting it is possible to prevent even one terrorist attack ... I am prepared to take the criticism," said Raanan Gissin, aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

But in Dheisheh, detainees said the gunmen fled the camp long ago.

"We are all civilians," said Kamal Khmais, 25, as soldiers tied his hands.

Clothing inspected

Hundreds stood in line Monday morning in a school yard in Dheisheh. Soldiers ordered the men, including teen-agers and fathers, to empty their pockets, putting coins and keys and their belts into plastic bags.

They then were told to remove their jackets and shirts, stripping down to their undershirts.

Holding the bag in one hand and their ID cards in the other, they put their hands over their heads. Soldiers patted them down, inspected shoes and legs, lifted T-shirts and collected information from ID cards.

They used digital cameras to photograph each face as the men marched forward one by one.

Soldiers then led them to the dusty yard of a stonecutting factory about a mile away.

Two men collapsed in the hot sun, and soldiers hustled over and gave them water. Men in line said another man fell and was left on the ground for 30 minutes because an ambulance could not enter the camp, where an Israeli bulldozer earlier had sliced through roads leading in and out.

At the end of the line was 17-year-old Mohammed Abu Sdoud, who watched each person go forward to have his eyes covered by a white cloth.

The Palestinians, some clutching their eyeglasses, had their hands bound with plastic wire.

"Hurry up," a soldier barked in Arabic.

Then, each man disappeared into a door of the stone factory.

"I am so scared," Abu Sdoud said.