Hospital staff from Jenin and Red Cross workers searching for bodies in Jenin refugee camp stopped working Monday afternoon, only hours after the recovery process started.
Arab israeli Member of Knesset, Dr. Ahmed Tibi, who is in contact with sources in the Palestinian Authority, said that the work had stopped because Israeli soldiers escorting the workers were causing some difficulties.
According to Tibi, the soldiers had prevented the rescue teams from bringing into the camp the equipment needed to recover the bodies from the ruins of the buildings destroyed during Israel's military operation.
Israel Radio said 14 more bodies were found Monday in the Jenin camp.
Earlier it was reported that Palestinian medics accompanied by Israeli troops began searching for bodies in the devastated Jenin refugee camp Monday.
Ambulances drove along the alleys of the camp, which has been the scene of the deadliest fighting in Israel's 17-day-old military offensive. Israel and the Palestinians have argued over who will retrieve the bodies — part of their bitter dispute over what happened in the weeklong battle.
Palestinians have charged that hundreds of people have been killed in the camp, including many civilians, while Israel said dozens died, most of them gunmen.
Fadi Jarar, a medic for the Palestinian Red Crescent, told AP soldiers were leading the ambulances to the bodies. He said his crew discovered one body under a collapsed three-story building. "We couldn't pull it out because we were afraid the rubble would collapse on us," Jarar said.
In the camp, medics in surgical masks, latex gloves and white uniforms placed gallons of drinking water in the streets, and residents took them into their homes.
Dr. Tim Keenan, who headed one of the Red Cross teams, said water and electricity to the local hospital had been restored. He said his first priority was to look for wounded people.
Before the search began, the medics and ambulances were thoroughly searched by Israel troops, Keenan said.
After banning reporters from the camp throughout the battle, the Israeli military took a group of journalists through on Sunday. Soldiers said so far they had found 40 bodies
There was widespread destruction in the camp, where tanks and bulldozers knocked over buildings in their street-to-street fight. In some places, rubble was piled two stories high, with pieces of furniture and personal possessions mixed with broken concrete.
Bethlehem
Meanwhile, Israeli troops stormed into two Palestinian villages near Bethlehem as part of the 17-day-old military offensive in the West Bank. Palestinian doctors said two Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids.
Additionally, Israeli troops exchanged fire with Palestinian fighters, who have been holed up inside the Church of the Nativity, one of Christianity's holiest shrines. Two Israeli soldiers and a Palestinian were lightly hurt, AFP reported.
Israeli forces entered two villages east of Bethlehem, Abdia and Deir Salah. A Palestinian motorist driving near Abdia was killed by army fire, Palestinian doctors said. The army confirmed the incursions but had no comment on the death.
In Doha, another village near Bethlehem, a Palestinian woman was killed when Israeli troops blew open the door to her home, Palestinian doctors said.
Earlier it was reported that large clouds of white smoke, apparently released by Israeli tanks, rose near the besieged Church of the Nativity , and witnesses said Israeli troops sporadically fired stun grenades in the area.
The army did not comment on the activity in the area of Manger Square. Israeli military officials said that soldiers demolished an "explosives lab" in Bethlehem with a controlled explosion, but that it was not in the Manger Square area.
Mazen Hussein, a Palestinian policeman inside the church, said Israeli troops did not try to enter the church compound which has been ringed by soldiers since April 2, with more than 200 Palestinians holed up inside.
Negotiations on the fate of the gunmen have failed so far.
Qalandya
Another Palestinian was killed during an Israeli army raid on the Palestinian refugee camp of Qalandya just north of Jerusalem.
Khalid Abed Ali, a 32-year-old civilian, was killed and seven other Palestinians injured in clashes that erupted when the soldiers moved into the refugee camp in an Israeli-controlled area between Jerusalem and Ramallah, Palestinian hospital officials said Monday.
According to AFP, fighting erupted when the army surrounded a building in the camp where people detained and expelled from Ramallah during Israel's invasion of the West Bank town two weeks ago had gathered, unable to return home.
Earlier in the day, another man, Rasni Mustafa Qadadha, 35, died of wounds sustained when the Israeli army invaded the village of Atara north of Ramallah last week. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
