A rchive Date
[ 07-04-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Israel ]
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[http://canoe.ca/Canoe/canoecnews.html
Israel presses ahead with fighting
Sunday, Apr. 07, 2002
NABLUS, West Bank (AP) - An Israeli army official said Sunday that the fighting would be over soon in Jenin, where soldiers have met fierce resistance from Palestinians in recent days, but Israel pressed ahead with its 10-day-old offensive to root out militants throughout the West Bank despite U.S. pressure for a quick withdrawal.
Tanks fired shells and helicopters sent missiles into a refugee camp in Jenin, in the northern West Bank, for the fifth straight day Sunday. Palestinians said gunbattles and sniper fire in Nablus, the largest city in the West Bank, left four Palestinians dead, and Israeli tanks shelled nearby Balata refugee camp.
In Bethlehem, a standoff between Israeli forces and scores of Palestinian gunmen holed up with Palestinian police officers and clerics in the Church of the Nativity, built over the traditional birthplace of Jesus, entered a sixth day.
Throughout the night, Israeli soldiers using loudspeakers urged the gunmen inside to surrender, saying, "Get out... It is a holy place... We have food... Surrender."
Tanks and troops massed outside two villages near Ramallah, where Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is holed up.
"In Jenin, we are at the verge of ending the fighting in the refugee camp," army spokesman Brig.-Gen. Ron Kitrey told The Associated Press. "The resistance there was very tough, perhaps tougher than estimated."
Kitrey made clear, however, that troops will not pull out of the refugee camp in Jenin, where Palestinian militants traditionally have been strong, once fighting ends.
"We will try to search for the wanted militants, their homes, their bases, the armouries and explosives stores, Kitrey said. "The operation will take time, as long as needed."
He said he does not expect resistance once the heavy fighting ends.
Palestinians inside the camp said Israeli forces have taken up positions in eastern and western neighbourhoods, not in the heart of the camp.
They have been exchanging fire with Palestinian gunmen from homes they have taken over, according to Jamal Abdel Salaam, a leader of the militant group Hamas inside the camp.
President George W. Bush, in a 20-minute phone call Saturday to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, pressed for an immediate pullout of Israeli forces, not just promises of future action, U.S. officials said.
Sharon, however, pledged only to try to "expedite" the operation, according to an Israeli statement. He did not announce a time frame for a withdrawal.
Sharon opened a cabinet meeting Sunday morning defending Israel's military offensive and praising the 11 Israeli soldiers who have died in it. "This is a fateful battle ... a war for our homes, and I want to send my blessings to all those facing this battle. We have had many fallen."
Secretary of State Colin Powell was scheduled to leave late Sunday for the Middle East to push for a ceasefire. Israeli cabinet minister Matan Vilnai told Israeli Radio that Israel "apparently will have to stop" the offensive when Powell arrives.
"It could be that we won't be able to enter new places that we planned on entering at this phase, for example cities of the Gaza Strip," said Vilnai, a retired general and member of Israel's security cabinet. The Israeli offensive has focused on the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip has been relatively quiet.
It was unclear whether Powell would meet with Arafat, who is confined to his Ramallah compound, which has been ringed by Israeli forces for more than a week. Palestinian officials said they would not talk to Powell unless he meets with Arafat.
Also Sunday, an 88-year-old woman died of wounds suffered in a March 27 attack on Passover celebrants in the Israeli city of Netanya, bringing the death toll to 27 Israelis in the deadliest suicide attack in 18 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Two days later, Israeli forces stormed Arafat's Ramallah headquarters, beginning the campaign to isolate the Palestinian president, hunt down militants and collect weapons. Since then, the Israeli army says, 361 wanted suspects were arrested, among 1,413 Palestinians detained.
In the Jenin refugee camp, Abdel Salaam, the Hamas leader, said residents have been confined to lower levels of their homes because tank and missile fire has made the upper floors too unsafe. Food and supplies were running low, he said.
"Nobody can move out of his house to see what has happened to his neighbour" said Abdel Salaam, reached on his mobile phone.
"We are talking to each other through windows only when the shelling stops, and we hear some stories from each other through this kind of connection - each one tells his neighbour."
He said residents talk of bloody bodies lying in the streets for days with no one able to get to them, wounded people unable to get medical care and homes demolished.
It was impossible to independently verify Israeli or Palestinian reports of events inside the camp.
European Union representative Miguel Moratinos called Sunday for "immediate clear orders to respect the safe passage of medical vehicles and staff" to attend to the wounded and evacuate the dead, particularly in Jenin and nearby Nablus.
Speaking to Israel's army radio, Kitrey, the army general, said Israeli forces control most of Nablus. But he said operating in the crowded casbah area, where militants have put up a fight in the old city's winding alleys, was "complicated."
Nablus Gov. Mahmood Alul said Israeli soldiers had taken over houses around the old city but hadn't penetrated the area by Sunday afternoon.
Ten bodies lay in an old city mosque, unable to be evacuated, and more than 65 injured Palestinians were receiving medical care, but with gunbattles continuing they still could not be taken to hospitals, Alul said.
Four Palestinians were killed Sunday in Nablus by sniper bullets or in fighting, hospital officials said.
Elsewhere early Sunday, Israeli troops and tanks surrounded and blocked roads into several small villages near Ramallah, witnesses said. Two of the villages, Beit Rima and Koubar, have been targets of past raids to round up militants.
In October, troops stormed Beit Rima looking for suspects in the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, the first Israeli cabinet minister ever killed by Palestinians.
Last week, forces raided Koubar looking for Marwan Barghouti, a top militant leader in Arafat's Fatah movement and an outspoken advocate of continued attacks on Israelis.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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