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Search for kidnapped Israeli soldier continues

Palestinian police arrest 300 militants in Gaza
GAZA CITY. Gaza Strip. Oct 13: Palestinian police arrested 300 Islamic militants in an extensive sweep Thursday after Yasser Arafat came under intense Israeli pressure to find a soldier-held hostage by a fundamentalist group, reports AP.
Palestinian police chief Brig. Gen. Nasser Yousef said that 9.000 troops were involved in the operation that began around 10 pm (2000 GMT) Wednesday night.
"The search is continuing. We are trying our best to get to the soldier, but we haven’t succeeded yet.” Yousef said.
A Palestinian security official at Gaza's central jail, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 300 Islamic militants had been arrested in the sweep.
Yousef said t he detained included five stringers for the Reuters news service that on Wednesday released a chilling videotape of missing soldier Cpl. Nachshon Waxman appealing to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to save his life by answering his captors' demands.
A Reuters videotape also
showed one of Waxman s cap-tors. who said he was from the militant wing of the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas group, announcing the kidnapping. The videotape was released on Tuesday.
At least one of the journalists had been freed from custody by early morning. Hamas sources said.
Arafat decided on the mass sweep of Islamic militants after he failed to get any information from Hamas political leaders. Palestinian sources said.
The Palestinian leader was also swayed by an insistent phone call from Rabin, the sources added.
Rabin has warned that the peace process -would be severely damaged If Arafat failed to make a serious effort to rescue the missing soldier.
• "1 repeat, and say that the soldier Nachshon Waxman is in Gaza, and I put the full weight of responsibility on Arafat." Rabin told Israel radio on Thursday, adding that Israel had no plans to send in troops to search for the soldier.
After meeting with his top
security lieutenants late Wednesday. Arafat decided "on' new measures to implement law and order." said his spokesman Marwan Kanafani.
A top aide. Ahmed Tibi, told Israel radio that the extent of the search was unprecedented. Tibi added, however, that there is no evidence to support Israeli claims that Waxman is being held in the Gaza Strip.
In the meantime, many Hamas activists on wanted lists have gone underground.
Three policemen came and broke down the door, charged info the house and started searching.” said Dr. Mahmoud Zohar, one of the top leaders of Hamas.
"They were looking for the soldier, but I don't know why they broke Into my house.” he told The Associated Press.
The arrests could lead to a. potential showdown between the autonomy authorities and the fundamentalist-led opposition - a conflict Arafat had been hoping to avoid since self-rule was established in Gaza and the West Bank town
of Jericho in May.
The crisis began Tuesday with the release of the videotape in which militants, who said they belonged to Hamas' military wing, claimed to be holding 19-ycar-old Waxman. They said they would kill him unless Israel released 200 Arab prisoners. Including Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, by Friday. Yassin has called on the captors to spare Waxman's life.
Waxman. an Israel-American dual citizen, is the 10th Israeli to have been kidnapped by Islamic militants since 1989 All the previous captives were killed.
Imad Faloji. one of the Hamas political leaders who met with Arafat, told The Associated Press the abductors were acting on their own.
"Arafat told us they don't want the Israeli army to tenter Gaza and reoccupy it." he said. "We told them that as politicians for Hamas, we have no relations with the military wing and Arafat should not take hasty measures that will only lead to infighting.”