- JERUSALEM - (CBS) Israeli
generals are planning for a possible massive invasion of Palestinian territories
if the current Mideast cease-fire fails, says a published report denied
by Israeli officials.
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- The report, published by the Jane's Information Group
in London, says the goal of the action would be to destroy Palestinian
armed forces and the Palestinian Authority, forcing Chairman Yasser Arafat
back into exile, as he was for 12 years after the 1982 Israeli invasion
of Lebanon.
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- The plan calls for air strikes by F-15 and F-16 fighter-bombers,
a heavy artillery bombardment, and then an attack by a combined force of
30,000 men, including paratroopers, tank brigades and infantry, reports
CBS News Correspondent David Hawkins.
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- Israel's Arab neighbors, Syria, Jordan and Egypt are
expected to stay out of the fight " but the report considers the possibility
that Iraq might try to intervene with troops, who would be destroyed by
the Israeli airforce. It also states that Egypt could invade the Sinai
peninsula, forcing Israel to call up its reserves.
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- The report indicates that Israel expects up to 300 of
its troops to die in such an attack, with Palestinian deaths in the thousands.
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- The report says the Israeli invasion plan would be launched
after another suicide bomb attack which causes a large number of deaths,
like the one at a Tel Aviv disco last month.
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- "That there is an Israeli contingency plan to re-occupy
the Palestinian areas comes as no surprise at all," said Francis Tusa,
a defense analyst. "That it is being pushed up the list and that it's
a leading option " this is coming as a bit more of a surprise and
a worrying one."
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- The Jane's report indicates that the plan was presented
to the Israeli cabinet on July 9. It reflects a possible change in thinking
in the current government; earlier governments rejected a military solution
to the Middle East dispute.
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- But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dismissed the
rumors of war Thursday, saying he has no plans to escalate the conflict.
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- "There is no imminent danger of war I also don't
see either a deterioration or escalation but I definitely see a situation
in which terrorism continues," Sharon told reporters on his plane
en route to his first official visit to Italy.
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- "People in the military get paid to make plans all
the time," cautioned Hirsch Goodman, an Israeli military analyst.
"There are plans and there are plans."
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- Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said no such plan was ever
submitted or discussed. "I'm so happy to see that such an important
journal has such a fertile imagination. It simply didn't happen,"
he told Israeli army radio.
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- Four Jewish settlers, including a baby, were wounded
in shootings Thursday, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger.
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- In response, Israeli tanks shelled Palestinian targets
in Nablus, killing a Palestinian policeman. More than 10 tank shells exploded
within seconds of each other, sending white smoke into the air over Nablus.
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- An Israeli military official said soldiers took over
a hill overlooking Nablus. The incursion is one of only a few such incidents
" which anger Palestinians " since Israel and the Palestinians
adopted a U.S.-brokered truce on June 13.
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