As U.S. envoy met with Yasser Arafat at his besieged headquarters Friday Israel's offensive against Palestinian activists entered its second week despite U.S. demands that troops withdraw from West Bank cities.
Ignoring the call by President Bush that Israel halt its week-old offensive, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Friday that "we are continuing the operation we started."
Israel has occupied six major West Bank towns and several smaller ones and arrested nearly 1,000 Palestinians.
On Friday, Israeli tanks stormed into new Palestinian territory — Tubas, a town of 20,000 in the West Bank. Helicopters battled hundreds of Palestinian gunmen in the city of Nablus and nearby refugee camps. More than 20 Palestinians, including six senior Hamas activists and a 14-year-old girl, were killed Friday.
The Israeli military also removed the bodies of six Palestinians from Bethlehem, but it was not clear whether these were new casualties.
Zinni
U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni met for 90 minutes Friday with Arafat, becoming the first senior official in eight days to meet with the Palestinian leader, who has been confined by Israel to a few rooms in his West Bank headquarters since last week.
Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rudeineh said there would be more meetings between Palestinian and U.S. officials later in the day.
Also Friday, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades at journalists trying to cover the Zinni-Arafat meeting, and tanks pointed barrels at the group.
Israel had initially turned down Zinni's request to see Arafat, but relented after Bush's speech Thursday. Powell called Arafat early Friday, Abu Rdeneh said.
Clashes
An Israeli helicopter fired missiles on a car in Hebron driven by Ziyad Shuweiki of the Islamic Jihad group, but he escaped, witnesses said. They said five bystanders, including an 8-year-old boy, were injured.
In Bethlehem, a standoff between Israeli forces and about 240 gunmen holed up in the Church of the Nativity, built over the site where tradition says Jesus was born, entered a fourth day. Four of about 60 priests trapped in the church came out Friday and left Bethlehem under Israeli escort, the military said.
Giacomo Bini, a senior Roman Catholic official in Rome, said both Israel and the Palestinian gunmen have caused damage the shrine, one of Christianity's holiest. Witnesses have said gunmen shot open a door when they forced their way into the church Tuesday, and the Palestinians have said Israeli forces blew open a door leading into the church courtyard Thursday.
In Friday's fighting, Israeli tanks streamed into Tubas, the first Israeli incursion since Bush demanded a halt to such raids. A 14-year-old Palestinian girl and six Hamas activists were killed.
Among the dead was the suspected mastermind of last week's Passover suicide bombing that killed 26 Israelis and triggered Israel's current military offensive, Palestinian sources and Israel TV said.
The alleged bombing mastermind, Qeis Adwan, headed Izzedine al Qassam, the military wing of Hamas, in the northern West Bank.
Palestinian witnesses in the town told AP that Israeli soldiers called on the men to surrender, but that the fugitives opened fire. Witnesses said helicopters and tanks then shelled the hideout. Soldiers had residents take out the bodies and then flattened the house with bulldozers, witnesses said.
Hamas sources confirmed Adwan took over as leader of Izzedine al Qassam in the northern West Bank several months ago. The group has carried out a series of suicide bombings in Israel, including the Passover attack on March 27 and a bombing in the northern port city of Haifa on March 31, in which 15 Israelis were killed.
The heaviest fighting was reported in the old city of the West Bank town of Nablus, the adjacent refugee camp of Balata and the refugee camp of Jenin to the north — three strongholds of Palestinian gunmen.
According to Israeli reports, one Israeli soldier was killed and more than ten wounded in the West Bank on Friday. However, Palestinian sources reported that at least four other soldiers were killed in an ambush in Nablus. Israel is yet to confirm this report.
Israeli helicopters and tanks fired shells and machine guns at the gunmen, who fired from behind barricades, witnesses said. At least three Palestinians were killed in Jenin and 14 in Nablus and Balata, witnesses and doctors said. Another 24 were injured, six seriously, Palestinian sources said Friday.
In Nablus, doctors opened a makeshift hospital in a mosque because ambulances could not enter, they said.
Also in Nablus, Nasser Awais, leader of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, was killed when explosives strapped to his body went off prematurely, said the Brigade spokesman, Abu Mujahed, reported AP.
At the time, Awais and other gunmen were seeking cover from advancing Israeli troops in the old city of Nablus.
Awais was responsible for scores of shooting and bombing attacks on Israelis in the past 18 months of fighting. He had escaped Israeli troops in the past, including last month when Israel raided the Balata refugee camp near Nablus where he lived. However, Israel TV, quoting military sources, said Awais was not killed and described this report as "disinformation".
In the Gaza Strip, some 10,000 supporters of Hamas rallied in the Jebaliya refugee camp. Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas founder, said the group would not stop attacks on Israelis, and he accused the United States of trying to weaken the Palestinians' resolve by renewing truce efforts. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
