BALATA REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank - Some 200 Palestinian police ringed the West Bank's largest refugee camp Monday and traded fire with Palestinian militants inside, the first major battle in ineffectual President Mahmoud Abbas' campaign to assert control over gunmen and persuade Israel he can implement a future peace deal. The confrontation erupted as Abbas tried to assure visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that he has begun meeting his short-term peace obligations, including disarming militants and rounding up illegal weapons.| Never miss that opportunity to miss your opportunity. WTG, Paleos. |
Police officers took to rooftops on the edges of the Balata refugee camp, next to the city of Nablus, and over several hours exchanged sporadic fire with gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent offshoot of Abbas' Fatah movement. Five civilians and a policeman were wounded.
The streets of the camp, a militant stronghold and home to around 22,000 people according to United Nations figures, were littered with rocks and overturned trash bins. Near a mosque, police peeked around a corner, then fired down a narrow street.
 Both sides said they would not back down. "They are trying to enter the camp and we will not let them," Nasser Abu Aziz, an Al Aqsa gunman, said in a telephone interview. "I'm in the middle of shooting, I can't talk much," he said before hanging up.
| Isn't that an appropriate metaphor for the Paleos? |
| If the AK's a-rockin', don't come a-knockin'. |
Ziad al-Ali, a Palestinian security chief, said the Al Aqsa Brigades must disband, noting that nearly all the group's members have accepted an amnesty deal with Israel, brokered by Abbas, in which they agreed to disarm. "We had given them a deal with the Israelis, and there is no longer a need for them (the brigade) to exist," he said.
But some Al Aqsa gunmen have balked at handing over their weapons.
Balata, one of 19 refugee camps in the West Bank, is a sprawling, rundown mass of cinderblock houses. Its residents — or their ancestors — fled their homes following Israel's creation in 1948. They are considered refugees because the area was Jordanian territory until 1967, when Israel captured the West Bank. The camp, and neighboring Nablus, became increasingly lawless during the second Palestinian uprising, which erupted in 2000.
| 'Increasingly' lawless? How could they tell? |
Last week, Abbas sent 300 additional police officers to Nablus, turning the city into a test ground for his new security campaign. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said that if the security forces can control chaotic Nablus, they would gradually try to do the same in other West Bank cities.
Monday's confrontation began after police seized a pistol from an Al Aqsa member, drawing fire from two of his friends.
| "Try to grab mah shootin' iron, will yew? Reach for the sky, varmint!" |
The security clampdown is part of Abbas' attempt to show that he is meeting his obligations under the first phase of the "road map" peace plan. The plan, dormant for four years, has been revived ahead of an upcoming U.S.-hosted Mideast conference, to be held before the end of the year.
Under the plan, Israel must freeze the expansion of West Bank settlements, dismantle dozens of settlement outposts, remove major West Bank roadblocks and pull its troops back to positions they held before the 2000 Palestinian uprising.
| Not a world about Paleo obligations. |
The Palestinians say they have made progress on their obligation to disrupt the activities of groups planning attacks on Israel, and that Israel must reciprocate. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that Israel is ready to do so, but suggested that the Palestinians have yet to accomplish much.
Israeli government official David Baker welcomed Monday's Nablus operation, but declined to say if it should be interpreted as progress on the road map provisions. |