t r u t h o u t - ISSUES - BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict

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BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict
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http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/14/international/middleeast/14MIDE-WIRES.html
Powell Calls Arafat Talks 'Useful' but No Progress Is Announced
By The Associated Press
April 14, 2002
RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Secretary of State Colin Powell made little progress toward a cease-fire in his talks Sunday with Yasser Arafat, who refused to discuss cracking down on militants until the Israeli military pulls out of the West Bank, Palestinian officials said.
Powell, meeting with Arafat under high security in his rocket-scarred headquarters where the Palestinian leader is under Israeli confinement, nonetheless called his meeting "useful and constructive."
But Palestinian negotiators said Arafat would carry through with a pledge curb violence against Israelis only after the Israeli military ends the 17-day-old incursion in Palestinian cities and villages.
"When the Israelis complete the full withdrawal we will carry out our obligations," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
Mohammed Dahlan, Arafat's security chief in the Gaza Strip, told The Associated Press: "The Palestinian position was clear that there would be no talks about political or security coordination without Israeli withdrawal."
Powell, in a terse statement after three hours of talks, said he and Arafat "exchanged a variety of ideas" to be followed up by senior U.S. and Palestinian officials on Monday. In the meantime, Powell is planning to take a side trip to Lebanon and Syria on Monday.
Concern over Hezbollah attacks on Israel from southern Lebanon shadows Powell's peace mission. He has urged Syria and Lebanon to curb the guerrillas, and asked intermediaries to appeal to Iran, which arms the group the State Department considers a terrorist organization.
Powell met late Sunday in Jerusalem with Israeli President Moshe Katsav and then was meeting in Tel Aviv with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon again. A second Powell meeting with Arafat on Tuesday was possible.
Powell said he talked with the Palestinian leader about "steps on how we can move forward," but the secretary of state offered no details and he didn't indicate any progress was made on attempts to gain a cease-fire.
In the meeting, Powell made a 45-minute presentation to Arafat with the clear message that "the bombings have to stop, that they are a major barrier to moving forward," on security and political issues, including Palestinian statehood, a senior U.S. official said.
Arafat, for his part, expressed serious concerns about the suffering of the Palestinian people, especially in Jenin, the site of fierce fighting, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
When Powell meets Sharon, he will press the U.S. call for a swift Israeli military withdrawal from the West Bank, for restraint by Israeli forces who are looking for militants and terrorists and for "unimpeded access to humanitarian organizations" for the Palestinian people.
Danny Ayalon, a Sharon foreign policy adviser, said a withdrawal would "happen eventually once we are done uprooting the terror organizations and make sure that terror doesn't bounce back when we leave."
Israelis "have not seen any movement from the Palestinians" on fighting terrorism and accepting a cease-fire, he added on ABC.
U.S. officials want Arafat to use the "bully pulpit of his leadership as required and called upon by our president to bring clearly home to his people that violence to accomplish political end is not going to be effective," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in Washington.
As for what the Israelis must do, Armitage said the Bush administration wants a withdrawal, but isn't setting a deadline. "There have been substantial withdrawals. We expect more," he said on CNN.
The White House kept close tabs on the talks. Chief of Staff Andrew Card said he spoke Sunday morning with President Bush, who's at Camp David, as well as with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, traveling with Powell.
Rice said Israelis and Palestinians should focus on steps each side must take to reach a cease-fire instead of criticizing one another.
"The key here is to have the parties concentrate on what they have to do, not what the other side has to do," Rice said on NBC's "Meet the Press." She and other White House officials put pressure on Arafat to act and didn't repeat calls for a swift Israeli pullout. "He needs to use whatever authority he has to end the calls for suicide bombers."
Asked when Powell would end his mission, Rice said he'll stay at least a couple of more days. "We will assess it day by day and he will have the flexibility to stay as long as he's needed," she said.
Arafat accompanied Powell to the front door of his blackened compound in the besieged West Bank compound and shook his hands at the end of the meeting, but the Palestinian leader did not emerge.
"Arafat did not come out for security reasons," senior Palestinian negotiator Erekat said, gesturing toward an adjoining building held by the Israel defense forces where soldiers peered out of windows. "You see the Israeli snipers all around. We are not going to take that risk."
President Bush has urged Israel to swiftly end its two-week-old military incursions in Palestinian cities and villages in the West Bank in an operation aimed at arresting militants suspected of carrying out and planning terrorists attacks on Israelis. Sharon has pulled out of some cities, but the prime minister has said he wants to complete the military action to destroy the terrorist infrastructure.
Powell and Arafat met for about three hours in a dining room, seated at a long table with Palestinian and American aides at their side.
Arafat, 72, appeared in good physical health, although he's been under pressure that is "unreal for an old man like him," said Zeid Abu Shawish, a Palestinian doctor caring for wounded in the compound.
Powell, carrying a sheaf of papers and bearing a serious expression, entered the compound in the embattled West Bank surrounded by helmeted U.S. security personnel armed with submachine guns. He traveled the 12 miles from Jerusalem in a motorcade of six armored vans.
Arafat's headquarters has been heavily damaged by Israeli shelling and gunfire. A gaping hole was torn in the blackened exterior wall, marked by bullet tracks. Many buildings have been reduced to piles of rubble.
Powell decided to meet with Arafat after the Palestinian leader denounced terrorism on Saturday in a statement the White House demanded.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/14/international/middleeast/14MIDE.html
Arafat Condemns Terror Attacks; Powell Meeting Is On
By Serge Schmemann
April 14, 2002
JERUSALEM, April 13 - Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said today that he would meet with Yasir Arafat on Sunday, after the Palestinian leader issued a statement condemning terrorist acts against civilians, and "especially the attack that took place against Israeli citizens yesterday in Jerusalem."
The reference was to a suicide bombing on Friday that killed six people. Following the attack, Secretary Powell canceled a meeting with Mr. Arafat that had been scheduled for today, and the White House demanded that Mr. Arafat issue a statement condemning terrorism.
That statement was issued this afternoon. In it, while condemning the suicide bombing, Mr. Arafat also railed at length against Israel for "escalation, a tighter siege, further occupation of our people, refugee camps, cities, villages, and more destruction of our infrastructure."
After studying the statement, Secretary Powell concluded that it met his requirements, and announced that late Sunday morning he would visit Mr. Arafat at his offices in Ramallah, in the West Bank, where he has been sealed up with about 100 other people by Israeli troops for 15 days now. [Military analysis, Page 16.]
Palestinian officials who met with Mr. Arafat today said the conditions there were appalling, because the compound has been without water, and often without electricity, for much of the past two weeks.
Secretary Powell was expected to travel there in an armored convoy.
Explaining the decision to reschedule the visit, Richard A. Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said that Mr. Arafat's statement "contains a number of interesting and positive elements: a condemnation of all terrorist acts against Israeli and Palestinian civilians, a strong condemnation of yesterday's bombing in Jerusalem," as well as support for American peace initiatives and Secretary Powell's mission.
Earlier in the day, at a meeting with United Nations and international Red Cross officials, Secretary Powell also demanded restraint from Israel, urging its army to refrain from the "excessive use of force."
The Israeli government, whose prime minister, Ariel Sharon, had described Secretary Powell's plan to meet Mr. Arafat as a "tragic mistake," dismissed Mr. Arafat's statement today.
Danny Ayalon, a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Sharon, said: "Such a condemnation is not worth anything coming from a man who is the top terrorist official. Arafat is being two-faced. On one hand he has statements published condemning terrorism, on the other he incites violence and supports terrorism." Mr. Arafat has issued similar condemnations of violence in the past.
The Palestinians have been irritated by what they perceive as a double standard from Washington, with constant pressures on the Palestinians to condemn suicide bombings, but no condemnation of the heavy casualties inflicted by the Israeli Army on Palestinian civilians, which the Palestinians refer to as "state terrorism."
The suicide bomber blew herself up on Friday just outside an entrance to the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, apparently blocked from entering by heavy security. Six people were killed and many seriously injured in the attack.
A statement issued through Hezbollah, the militant Islamic movement in Lebanon, said that Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades was responsible for the attack. Al Aksa is linked to Mr. Arafat's Fatah movement, and has been responsible for a majority of suicide bombings since January.
Saeb Erekat, one of the officials of the Palestinian Authority who visited Mr. Arafat today, said he had found the conditions in Mr. Arafat's offices "awful."
"They've had no running water for 15 days," he said. "People are not taking showers. There is a shortage of food, medicine. There are 30 foreigners in there."
Israeli officials have put the number of people with Mr. Arafat at more than 100, and have said they will not lift the siege until several wanted men surrender.
The military situation remained largely unchanged today. Israeli armor swept through three West Bank towns, evidently to seize men or to search houses identified by men arrested in earlier searches. The Israeli Army remains in full control of Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jenin and Nablus, and has encircled Tulkarm and Qalqilya.
Israeli officials said the operation was intelligence-driven, in the sense that Israeli intelligence agencies would be following up on leads from captured Palestinians or documents. For this reason, apparently, the Israeli Army intended to remain in control of the Palestinians cities and towns for at least a week to 10 days.
On his first day in Israel on Friday, Secretary Powell found Prime Minister Sharon determined not to withdraw until he deemed the operation over.
That marked a direct defiance of President Bush's call a week earlier for the Israelis to withdraw "without delay," but the secretary and the White House seemed intent on avoiding the impression of a serious dispute, referring to Mr. Sharon as a friend and reiterating that Israel had the right to combat terrorism.
Though the most brutal phase of the operation seemed over, a major furor was taking shape over the fate of Palestinian men killed in Jenin. The Israeli Army said it intended to bury gunmen in an "enemies' cemetery" in the Jordan Valley, prompting Palestinians to charge that Israel was trying to cover up a "massacre."
In a surprise intervention, the Israeli Supreme Court today ordered the army not to remove bodies of Palestinians from the Jenin camp until the court held a hearing on Sunday. The injunction came in response to a petition from Israeli Arabs. Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli Arab legislator, argued that removing bodies from the city was a violation of international law.
The court also ordered state prosecutors to respond to charges that the army had buried bodies in a mass grave, as charged by Palestinians.
A far-right legislator, Avigdor Lieberman, said in the wake of the decision that the president of the Supreme Court, Aharon Barak, should be removed from office, since the ruling placed him in the camp of Israel's enemies.
Instead of meeting with Mr. Arafat today, Secretary Powell met with officials of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which has been running Palestinian refugee camps since they were formed at the creation of Israel in 1948, and with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Both agencies have charged that they have been prevented from entering the Jenin camp.
After the meeting, Secretary Powell called on Israel to allow the agencies to operate and said the United States would add $30 million to the $80 million it provides annually to the United Nations relief agency.
He also issued a statement calling on Israeli troops in the West Bank to "exercise the utmost restraint and discipline and refrain from the excessive use of force."
On Israel's northern border, the militant Hezbollah organization fired another salvo of antitank missiles, mortar shells and machine-gun rounds at Israeli positions on Mount Dov.
The attacks have come virtually daily since Israel began its operations in the West Bank 15 days ago.
Israel has repeatedly warned that it will strike at Syrian targets if the attacks carry on, on the premise that Syria is the force responsible for controlling Lebanon and Hezbollah. Secretary Powell had a helicopter tour of the area on Friday.
Today, Lebanon charged three Palestinians suspected of fighting rockets into Israel with forming an illegal military group. The charges were viewed as an attempt to show that the Lebanese government was opposed to the crossborder strikes, but Beirut appeared unable or unwilling to tackle Hezbollah, which has considerable support in the Shiite population of southern Lebanon.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

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Powell Calls Off Meeting With Yasser Arafat
After Latest Suicide Bombing in Jerusalem
J E R U S A L E M | The Associated Press
April 12, 2002 | 7:29.pm.est.us
Secretary of State Colin Powell called off his Saturday meeting with Yasser Arafat late Friday night after a new suicide bombing spread out before Powell's eyes the carnage he had come to Israel in hopes of ending.
The meeting might be rescheduled for Sunday, a senior U.S. official said. But a spokesman said Powell "expects a clear denunciation of terrorism" and of the new bombing in the meantime.
Arafat has been reluctant to make such a statement, with support for suicide attacks running high among Palestinians in light of Israel's military offensive in the West Bank.
Earlier Friday, Powell failed to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to provide a timetable for withdrawing Israeli troops from Palestinian cities and towns, although he continued to press the matter.
Soon after Powell's effort on that side of the conflict fell short, he was confronted with the agony of the other side.
Powell got word of the bombing at a Jerusalem marketplace and hovered overhead in a helicopter as the dead and injured were taken away.
"It illustrates the exceptionally dangerous situation that exists here," he said in a telephone call to Sharon.
The bomber killed six shoppers and injured many more by detonating explosives she was wearing.
In a statement read to reporters at Safed, in northern Israel where the secretary of state toured the tense border area near Lebanon, Powell suggested that accelerated diplomacy was the right response.
There is a need, he said, "for all of us, everyone, the international community, to exert every effort we can to find a solution."
And yet, a few hours later, Powell directed State Department spokesman Richard Boucher to announce he was "looking at the whole situation in terms of the bombing and where we stand and where we are," raising questions about whether Powell would press ahead.
After midnight, Boucher announced, "In light of today's developments, the secretary will not be meeting with Chairman Arafat on Saturday."
"It is important that Chairman Arafat not miss this opportunity to take a clear stand against the violence that harms the Palestinian cause," the spokesman said.
Powell on Saturday will meet in Jerusalem with Red Cross and U.N. officials on the deteriorating situation on the West Bank, Boucher said.
"There's been too much suffering on both sides," he said.
At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer said Powell had the flexibility necessary to his mission.
As for the Palestinian leader, Fleischer said, "Today would be a very good day for Yasser Arafat to publicly denounce terrorism and show some statesmanship."
Powell was informed of the bombing as he prepared to board the helicopter to tour Israel's fragile northern border area. Israeli Defense Minister Benyamin Ben-Eliezer provided Powell with details and the helicopter passed over the site of the attack en route to the Israel Defense Force's northern headquarters.
Although Sharon would not give Powell a timetable for pulling back from Israeli incursions, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel's aims in Palestinian areas were close to being met.
"We are anxious as anybody else to complete the mission and leave," he said. "We are not talking about years, we are talking about a week or something a little bit more than that."
Hopes that Powell's mission would end the violence were slim. A Time-CNN poll released Friday indicated 75 percent of Americans felt like Powell's trip was a good idea but only 20 percent thought major progress would be made toward peace. And 60 percent felt the United States should reduce economic aid to Israel if Sharon does not pull military forces out of Palestinian cities.
Powell had planned tentatively to see Sharon on Friday, Arafat on Saturday, Sharon again on Sunday and Arafat on Monday and had not set a deadline for winding up.
"Israel is conducting a war against the Palestinian infrastructure of terror and hopes to end it as soon as possible," Sharon said at a news conference with Powell.
For his part, Powell said he had explained the U.S. position to the prime minister and "I hope we can find a way to come to an agreement on this point of the duration of the operations and get back to a track that will lead to a political settlement."
Mohammed Dahlan, head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service for the Gaza Strip, said Israel's military offensive was to blame for creating suicide bombers. "This is coming from the anger and suffering of the Palestinian people due to these attacks and sieges," he said in an interview.
Earlier, Powell took a tough stand on what he wanted from Arafat, who is cooped up in Ramallah under Israeli-imposed isolation.
"What is important now is not just rhetoric going on into the air with no effect but action action that will bring this violence under control, action that will give a feeling of hope to the people in the region," he said.
In Congress, meanwhile, Republican Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri said Friday that the White House should consider bringing Powell home and refuse to deal with Arafat.
"We shouldn't be trying to help bring a peace settlement when the atrocities continue to emanate from the Palestinian Authority," Bond said.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

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REUTERS | Powell Arrives in Israel on Peace Mission
April 11, 2002 5:14.pm.est.us
By Matt Spetalnick
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Israel on Thursday on a peace mission overshadowed by Israeli defiance over its West Bank offensive and a Palestinian suicide bombing on the eve of his visit.
Powell, adding higher profile to Washington's reactivated Middle East peacemaking role, flew to Tel Aviv after talks in Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and Spain which focused on 18 months of bloodshed since Palestinians rose up against Israeli occupation.
The United States has led international calls for Israel to withdraw its troops from Palestinian cities, towns, villages and refugee camps it has occupied in an offensive intended to root out militants behind a wave of suicide attacks.
But Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's resolve to keep up the 13-day-old military campaign in defiance of its chief ally has been hardened by the latest suicide attack, a bus bombing on Wednesday that killed eight Israelis near the city of Haifa.
The Israeli army launched new raids in the West Bank before dawn on Thursday though it also said it had pulled back from 24 Palestinian villages.
Palestinian officials called the partial withdrawal a publicity stunt, and tanks and troops maintained a tight grip on most of the West Bank's most important cities hours before Powell was due to arrive to try to quell the violence.
Israel's latest moves sent a mixed message to President Bush, who has grown increasingly vociferous in his demands for an end to the offensive.
But comments by White House spokesman Ari Fleischer indicated Washington remains firmly behind Israel, despite its criticism of the fierce West Bank offensive.
"The president believes that Ariel Sharon is committed to peace -- to finding peace in the region," Fleischer told reporters in Washington.
Taking note of the pullouts from some Palestinian villages, Fleischer said: "The withdrawal called for is continuing."
The White House, which has repeatedly demanded that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat do more to end the violence, also urged Palestinians and Arab nations to "step up their responsibilities to denounce terrorism."
Israelis pay close attention to Washington's views because it provides the Jewish state with $3 billion in annual aid.
FEARS THAT VIOLENCE COULD SPREAD
The latest Israeli-Palestinian blood-letting has raised fears that the bloodshed could spread across the region and beyond.
A truck filled with cooking gas exploded near a Jewish shrine on the Tunisian resort island of Djerba, killing six people, including four German tourists, witnesses said.
The Tunisian government struggled to dispel suspicions the explosion at the ancient El Ghriba synagogue was a suicide bombing prompted by Arab anger at Israeli's West Bank offensive.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said however the blast appeared to be a "deliberate terrorist attack" and not an accident, as Tunisian authorities maintained.
Wednesday's bus bombing and Palestinian charges that 500 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive have undermined hopes Powell will be able to quell more than 18 months of unrelenting violence.
He was due to meet Sharon on Friday, followed by talks on Saturday with Arafat, who remains penned in by Israeli tanks at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah.
The army said tanks and troops swept into the Palestinian-ruled towns of Bir Zeit and Dahariya and the Ein Beit Elma refugee camp, near the city of Nablus, on Thursday, making dozens of arrests, seizing arms and occupying buildings.
Witnesses said soldiers ordered students out of their dormitories at Bir Zeit University, the West Bank's largest university and a stronghold of nationalism, and detained several students. Troops imposed a curfew and seized the town hall.
The army said it had pulled out of two dozen Palestinian villages in the past 24 hours, but it gave no indication when it would withdraw from Palestinian cities and other areas it has occupied since the offensive began.
"It is talk for television," said Mohammed Dahlan, head of Palestinian Preventive Security in the Gaza Strip. "It has no value on the ground."
Troops still hold the major population centers of Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin and Bethlehem, where a standoff between soldiers and armed Palestinians continued at the Church of the Nativity.
PALESTINIAN APPEAL TO STOP "MASSACRES"
The Palestinian Authority called on the international community "to stop these Nazi massacres of our people," and thousands marched in the Gaza Strip to protest against the heavy death toll in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
Israel launched the offensive on March 29 after a suicide bomber killed 28 people at an Israeli seaside hotel.
The army has seized cities, villages and refugee camps in a campaign it says is aimed at destroying "terror infrastructure" in the West Bank. It has reported killing at least 200 Palestinians, insisting most of them were militants.
The army said the last major pocket of Palestinian resistance in the Jenin camp -- scene of some of the worst fighting in the campaign -- fell to Israeli troops when 36 gunmen surrendered on Thursday.
Powell took an upbeat view of his Middle East mission after a telephone conversation with Sharon. "The mission is still on," he told reporters in Madrid earlier on Thursday.
Despite that, many Arab states and U.S. critics have questioned Bush's commitment to halting the offensive because Powell did not begin his mission in Jerusalem but made three stopovers on the way. Some have interpreted the delay as a way of giving Sharon time to finish his crackdown.
At least 1,263 Palestinians and 446 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began in September 2000.

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Israel Withdraws From Two Dozen Towns and Villages
Enters Other West Bank Areas
J E R U S A L E M | The Associated Press
April 11, 2002 5:14.pm.est.us
Israel pulled out of two dozen small West Bank towns and villages Thursday, but swept into others and rounded up more Palestinian men despite U.S. calls and international pressure to end the 2-week-old campaign to root out militants.
Israel's army says 4,185 Palestinians have been detained in the operation nearly half of them in the past two days as fighters in the key northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus, their numbers depleted in battle, ran out of ammunition and surrendered.
Among those in custody were 121 Palestinians who had been on Israel's wanted list, the army said.
Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Israel in the evening and was expected to meet with both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has been kept a virtual prisoner by Israel in his besieged compound in Ramallah.
On Thursday, Sharon acknowledged the fighting was causing the United States difficulties, but refused to call a halt to the incursion.
There has been rising anti-American sentiment throughout the Arab world in response to Israel's offensive, launched two weeks ago to crush Palestinian militias after a series of deadly attacks on Israeli civilians.
"They (the Americans) have problems in the region, that's true, but I informed them that our activity will continue and it will continue," Sharon said.
The United States, along with the United Nations and European leaders, has demanded an immediate Israeli pullout from the West Bank. Powell was visiting the region in an attempt to secure a cease-fire and restart peace talks.
In what appeared to be a gesture ahead of Powell's arrival, Israeli forces withdrew from about two dozen small towns and villages. But in raids early Thursday, they entered the West Bank towns of Dahariyah and Bir Zeit and the Ein Beit Hilmeh refugee camp. Later, they pulled out of Bir Zeit after detaining about 300 people, mainly students in the university town.
The White House raised no objection to the pace of Israel's response to President Bush's pleas. "The withdrawals he called for are continuing," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
In the Jenin refugee camp, scene of the deadliest fighting during the offensive, three dozen armed men, apparently the last holdouts, surrendered to Israeli troops Thursday.
The battle in Nablus ended before dawn Wednesday, when an estimated 100 gunmen hungry, exhausted and nearly out of ammunition walked out of an Old City mosque.
Brig. Gen. Eyal Schlein, the Israeli army's Jenin division commander, told The Associated Press on Thursday night that occasional shooting persists in Jenin "and sometimes more than that."
"Many of the most wanted have been captured or killed, or were wounded and captured," he said. "The area is messy. There are many explosives, booby-traps. ... But overall, most of what we were looking for, we found."
Reporters touring the Jenin camp, which had been off limits to journalists during eight days of combat, saw widespread devastation from army bulldozers that had sheared the front walls off homes. But no bodies were seen in the streets Thursday.
Dr. Hussam Sherkawi, director of emergency services in the West Bank, said at least 140 Palestinians have been killed during the Israeli offensive. But he said it was impossible to verify death toll estimates because rescue services had not been permitted to enter the Jenin camp.
An army spokesman, Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz, estimated 100 Palestinians had been killed in fighting in Jenin. He denied persistent rumors the army had dug mass graves and said Israelis hadn't removed any bodies.
Twenty-eight Israeli soldiers have died in the military campaign, all but five of them in Jenin.
On Thursday, Israeli troops in the Jenin camp confiscated footage filmed by an Associated Press Television News cameraman.
Video footage obtained Thursday by APTN showed Arafat during recent meetings in his Ramallah compound. Arafat's pistol was visible at his waist as he met Wednesday with aides, some looking weary and unshaven. He softly read a translation of an Israeli Cabinet statement affirming continuation of the military operation. In another room, bullet holes scarred a wall, and a door and metal cabinet were propped up to block a window.
In Bethlehem, Israeli forces in armored personnel carriers circled the Church of the Nativity compound that has been the site of an extended standoff between soldiers and about 200 armed Palestinians. A ring of tanks controlled access from all sides. Black smoke wafted up near the compound; witnesses said the army had blown up some cars in the area.
A U.N. convoy distributed food to a Bethlehem refugee camp and to families in the city, which has been under nearly constant curfew since the church standoff began April 2. Troops patrolled streets and blew open doors to shops and homes, especially in the Old City, as they searched for militants.
"There is a lack of food and a lack of medicine, but the most important thing there is a lack of is freedom. I don't know when this crisis will find an end," said Tony Maria, a 45-year-old father of three looking off from his balcony at the patrolling tanks.
In other developments:
An Israeli government official said the government had agreed to allow Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher to visit Arafat. Maher said he would visit Arafat "when the time is right."
Israeli tanks briefly re-entered the West Bank town of Tulkarem, where troops arrested a 24-year-old Palestinian woman who, according the Israeli military, was suspected of planning a suicide attack.
A senior Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an Armenian monk seriously wounded in the Church of the Nativity compound was apparently shot by an Israeli soldier.
In Tamoun village near Nablus, a Palestinian woman was killed and her husband and 2-year-old son injured by an explosion in their house, hospital officials said. The husband, who lost both hands, was apparently handling the explosive when it detonated.
A Palestinian suspected of collaborating with Israel was killed in Khan Younis, Palestinian security officials in the Gaza Strip said.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

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Powell Heading for Jordan, Israel, Pushing Ahead on Peace Mission
Despite Israel's Objections to His Meeting Arafat
MADRID, Spain | The Associated Press
April 11, 2002 1:43.am.est.us
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday he would push ahead with his peacekeeping mission in the Middle East despite Israel's objections to his meeting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. An Israeli military withdrawal from three West Bank towns drew support from the White House.
"The withdrawal the president has called for is continuing. Now the Palestinian Authority and Arab nations have to do what the president called for," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in Washington. The statement did not mention Arafat by name.
"The burden isn't Israel's alone. All parties have responsibilities," Fleischer said on the eve of Powell's visit to Israel.
Israel's defense ministry had announced that Israeli troops were leaving the Palestinian villages of Yatta, Qabatya and Samua.
The White House statement was a shift from the administration's objections earlier Wednesday over Israel's slowness in meeting Bush's demands for a withdrawal.
In his earlier remarks, Powell brushed aside Sharon's assertion that the secretary's planned meeting with Arafat this weekend would be "a tragic mistake." Powell said his mission was "not in the least in jeopardy."
He said he hoped Sharon would help the meeting take place and ease restrictions on Arafat in Ramallah to help him communicate more readily with other Palestinian leaders.
"He is the partner that Israel will have to deal with," Powell said after his peace mission was endorsed in Madrid by the European Union, the United Nations and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
America has pressured Israel to pull troops out of West Bank cities and end its 13-day offensive. Despite the newly announced withdrawals, Israeli troops still occupy the major population centers of Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin and Bethlehem.
Powell is trying to persuade Sharon to pull his troops back entirely, Arafat to speak out against terror and for both sides to return to the negotiating table.
The crux of Powell's two-step plan is to try to arrange a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians and then steer them into negotiations that would culminate in a Palestinian state on land Israel now holds.
But Sharon pledged on Wednesday to maintain the offensive until Palestinian militias are destroyed.
Even if Powell gains a cease-fire, many in the region question how well it might hold if there are more Palestinian suicide attacks. Further, mistrust would make talks about future borders and a Palestinian state difficult, with the constant threat of a wider war in the region.
As he trekked through the Middle East and then detoured to Spain, Powell made plain that his other objectives include renewing security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians, asking Saudi Arabia for assistance to rebuild Palestinian facilities and organizing a worldwide relief effort for Palestinians.
"We understand the difficult situation that Israel finds itself in, but we believe that the best way to relieve this tension, the best way to move forward and provide a solution to the crisis that we find ourselves in, is for the withdrawal of Israeli forces," Powell said at a news conference.
Powell is due in Israel late Thursday after a stop in Jordan to talk to King Abdullah II. He is to see Sharon in Jerusalem on Friday and hopes to see Arafat on Saturday.
President Bush, after first strongly supporting the Israeli leader, last week demanded that Sharon call a halt. As a result, U.S. policy is now more in line with the views of Arab and European governments.
Sharon, on the other hand, feeling the continuing sting of Palestinian suicide attacks on Israelis, told reporters while touring an Israeli army base near the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin that he had informed Bush he could not pull troops back immediately.
"Here we are in the middle of a battle," Sharon said. "If we leave, we will have to return. Once we finish, we are not going to stay here. But first we have to accomplish our mission."
In Washington, White House spokesman Fleischer reiterated that he wants the Palestinian Authority and Arab nations to "publicly denounce terrorism, stop funding it, stop inciting violence in state-owned media and begin to implement" peace process plans. In a break from past practice, the statement did not ask Israel to pull back its troops.
The leaders in Madrid urged both Israelis and Palestinians to cooperate with Powell.
"There is no military solution to the conflict," said a joint statement issued by four leaders and Powell. The statement called for an immediate cease-fire and Israel's withdrawal from Palestinian-held cities on the West Bank, including Ramallah, where Arafat is confined.
At the same time, the officials said, "Terrorism, including suicide bombing, is illegal and immoral."
Meanwhile, in advance of Powell's visit, U.S. envoy Gen. Anthony Zinni met with Palestinian officials in Jerusalem.
And Vice President Dick Cheney spoke with Syrian President Bashar Assad and made clear Bush's admonition to stay out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a State Department official said. He said Cheney also stressed the need to act and speak against terrorism and violence.
The official, asking not to be identified, noted that the United States has condemned recent attacks on Israel from Lebanese territory and attempts by any party to escalate the conflict through military action.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Syrian and Lebanese leaders had assured him they would try to curb the guerrilla attacks on Israel from Lebanon.
A senior U.S. official called the situation serious and said Israel was being urged to act with restraint in response to Hezbollah attacks.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27226-2002Apr10.html
Suicide Bombing Stiffens Israel's Resolve
Sharon Rejects U.S. Demands for Withdrawal
By Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 10, 2002; 3:54.pm.est.us
JERUSALEM, April 10 � On the eve of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's arrival in the region, a deadly suicide bombing aboard a bus in Northern Israel has stiffened Israel's resolve to continue its military offensive in Palestinian areas in the face of mounting international criticism.
During a visit to a military command base in Jenin, the scene of the fiercest fighting and the heaviest casualties on both sides in the 13-day-old offensive, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon defiantly rejected demands that he withdraw his forces, saying, "We should continue to fight until the mission is completed."
"We can't leave a single cell of terrorism, whether in Jenin, in Nablus or in Ramallah," Sharon said. He added, "We are still in the middle of the battle. We have to complete it. Otherwise, we will have to enter again."
Sharon's hard-line position was bolstered today by a vote of his security cabinet, which held a three-hour meeting and decided that the Israeli military operation will continue, as well as the army's siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, until all Palestinian gunmen had surrendered.
Signaling a difficult trip ahead for Powell, other government officials today were taking a similar tough line on President Bush's demand for an immediate Israeli pullback. The Justice Minister, Meir Sheetrit, a member of Sharon's rightwing Likud party, said, "With all due respect to the Americans � and I don't want to break with them or have a fight with them � but we here are defending our homes."
Israel launched its invasion of Palestinian towns and cities on March 29, aiming, the government said, to uproot an "infrastructure of terrorism" and prevent the kinds of suicide bombings and attacks that saw 125 Israelis killed in the month of March alone. Israel had been declaring the operation so far a success � displaying for reporters scores of firearms and explosives belts collected and destroying what it called bomb-making factories, including four today in Nablus.
But the suicide bombing this morning, carried out by a West Bank Palestinian, seemed certain to raise questions about the efficacy of massive military campaign, even while hardening Israeli attitudes toward accepting American demands for an immediate withdrawal and a ceasefire with the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, who has now been declared an "enemy." The attack killed eight Israelis and left 14 wounded.
"If there are more victims like these, the United States government, President Bush and also Colin Powell � who want us to stop the operation � will be held responsible," said health minister Nissim Dahan, who was in a hospital visiting some of the victims from the latest attack in Haifa.
Today's suicide bombing, on the 960 bus near the Kibbutz Yagur, a communal farm about 15 miles from the West Bank, was the first such attack in nine days, since a Palestinian in a car blew himself up at a roadside checkpoint, killing a police officer. Today's attack, coming during the morning rush hour, jerked the vehicle a yard off the ground and flung bodies and body parts across the highway. The blast explosion turned the front of the bus into a charred skeleton of twisted metal and peeled back the roof like the lid of a can of beans.
The bus had just made its second stop of the morning on an express run from Haifa to Jerusalem. Its passengers included four Israeli soldiers returning to duty from leave, three policemen and a nursing student on her way to Jerusalem to take her final examinations.
Bus driver Yehoshua Akst, 55, who was being treated at a local hospital for cuts and bruises, told his wife that he believed the suicide bomber may have been wearing an Israeli military uniform. "He didn't see anybody looking suspicious," his wife, Zvia, said as she waited for her husband's injuries to be treated at a Haifa hospital. "He thinks he was dressed as a soldier."
Police said they believe the bomber, who was wearing a belt packed with nails, screws and about 18 pounds of explosives, boarded at the main terminal, paid for his ticket and took the third seat on the right side of the bus.
Omri Saleh, 29, was on his way to work at the local electric company and was driving alongside a bus when "suddenly everything exploded and flew on top of me."
The militant group Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, claimed responsibility for the attack and said the suicide bomber was 22-year-old Ayman Abu Haija, a resident of Jenin, where the Israeli military and Palestinian gunmen have been engaged in an intense weeklong battle. Israeli police said they believe the bomber may have come to Israel from the West Bank town of Tulkarem, a town the Israelis invaded, then pulled back from, two days ago.
The fact that the bomber came from the West Bank immediately raised questions here about how he was able to infiltrate into Israel past the tight cordon of troops and armor thrown up since the Israeli offensive began. Sharon, speaking earlier this week to the Knesset, or parliament, talked about an eventual withdrawal accompanied by "buffer zones" between Israel proper and the Palestinian population centers of the West Bank precisely to prevent this type of infiltration and bloody attack.
The fighting in a Jenin refugee camp continued today, but less intense than in the previous few days, and Israel said some 250 armed Palestinians had now surrendered.
Fifteen Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting in the Jenin refugee camp � 13 in a single, sophisticated ambush Tuesday involving a suicide bomber, a series of hidden explosives, and Palestinian snipers posted in buildings. The number of Palestinians dead in Jenin remains unknown, but is believed to be more than 100. Some Palestinians put the number of dead in Jenin at 500, and referred to it as a "massacre."
Palestinian refugees and medical sources spoke of bodies littering the streets of the camp. Among the dead was said to be Mahmoud Tawalbeh, 23, a leader of the radical group Islamic Jihad and a man whom Israel claims was the mastermind behind several recent terrorist attacks.
The Palestinian Authority called for Thursday to be set aside as a day to "honor the resistance of Jenin."
That tense standoff in Bethlehem, centered around the church revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, saw another violent incident today when an Armenian monk inside the compound was shot and seriously injured by a sniper apparently firing from Manger Square, the expansive plaza facing the church. The lay monk, identified as 22-year-old Armin Sinanian, was shot in the right side of his back, below the shoulder, and tonight was in serious condition at a Jerusalem hospital.
Bishop Aris Shirvanian, the director of ecumenical and foreign relations for the Armenian Patriarchy, said the monk was standing in his room in the Armenian monastery with his back the window when he was felled by a single shot from Manger Square. It is unclear who fired the shot, but Israeli soldiers are positioned in the square facing the church, and about 200 Palestinian gunmen are holed up inside.
"It was only one shot," the bishop said. "We wonder why it should have happened."
Spokesmen for the Israeli Defense Force said they were investigating the shooting. Previously the army said it was operating under instructions not to fire at the historic Byzantine-era church. But there have now been at least three cases of people inside or near the church being shot � two of them, a Palestinian policeman and a retarded bell-ringer, killed � with the bullets coming from the firing position of Israeli troops.
Religious institutions, including the Vatican, the Greek Orthodox Church, and the Armenians who share custody of the Church of the Nativity, have all called for a peaceful end to the standoff, and have offered a formula that would allow the Palestinians inside to go free under a "safe conduct" agreement in exchange for leaving behind their weapons.
But today, sources disclosed a letter from Israeli President Moshe Katsav to the Pope rejecting any such compromise over the church. "Under the circumstances, I regret that with all the respect and consideration we have for the Christian holy places, we have no alternative but to prevent armed Palestinian terrorists, who have murdered innocent Jews, from escaping and continuing their acts of bloodshed," Katsav said in the letter to the Pope, revealed by the Ha'aretz Daily newspaper.
"Our objective remains to extricate these armed terrorists, unharmed from the church," the letter said. "Since giving safe conduct to the extremely dangerous terrorists presently in the church would constitute a grave danger to public safety, we have no choice but to maintain our presence in the immediate area."
One rightwing member of the Knesset, Avigdor Lieberman, in an interview with Army Radio offered another solution for the church standoff; pump gas into the church to force the people out without damaging the building.
"We can put gas in there and take them out � they'll simply come out," Lieberman said. "We have enough technical means. We need neither harm the church nor obliterate it. It all depends on the political echelon. It must make a decision and give the order to get them out of there."
Today, the international appeals mounted for Israel to withdraw its forces from the West Bank and agree to a ceasefire. In Madrid, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia all joined the United States in calling for an immediate Israeli pullback.
The U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan, accompanied the call with a strong humanitarian appeal. "I am frankly appalled by the humanitarian situation," Annan said. He said the ongoing fighting was causing "enormous suffering for the innocent civilian population."
In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair called for international intervention to resolve the dispute, telling the House of Commons, "The sad and simple truth is that the hatred is too deep and the wounds too raw for the two sides to be able to handle this alone."
But Israel seemed as likely to reject the European appeals as the American calls for a pullout. The former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is acting as a spokesman for Israel, replied to the European calls saying, "This was a Europe that didn't lift a finger 60 years ago when Jews were being slaughtered."
"The governments of Europe do not hold much sway in Israel, I'm sorry to say," Netanyahu said.
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Suicide Bomber Blows Up Israeli Commuter Bus
During Rush Hour Near Northern City of Haifa
JENIN, West Bank | The Associated Press
April 10, 2002 2:32.am.est.us
A Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a commuter bus in northern Israel during rush hour Wednesday morning, killing at least eight people. The attack came a day after 14 Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush in a refugee camp, the biggest blow yet to the army in its campaign to crush Palestinian militants in the West Bank.
The suicide bombing on an express bus from Haifa to Jerusalem also injured at least 20 people, medics said, and brought more horror to the northern port city, which has been the scene of frequent attacks.
Hours before the bus bombing, Israeli forces opened the 13th day of their campaign with a predawn attack on a refugee camp in Nablus, the West Bank's largest city. Smoke could be seen rising from the camp as the area was pounded with artillery fire, heavy machine guns and dozens of missiles fired from helicopters.
Fighting also continued in a refugee camp next to the northern city of Jenin, where militants who say they would rather die than surrender have battled Israeli troops in a warren of narrow alleyways. Troops were firing mortars into the camp early Wednesday and bulldozers were demolishing homes, Israel Radio reported.
The skirmishes came one day after militants in the Jenin camp delivered the bloodiest blow yet to the Israelis since the offensive began. Fourteen soldiers were killed in a carefully timed double ambush Tuesday.
A military spokesman said a rapid series of blasts went off in the alley one of them detonated by a suicide bomber and collapsed part of a building on several soldiers.
Defying U.S. demands that Israel wrap up its campaign without delay, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed "Operation Defensive Shield" will go on until it the army completes its mission: "the destruction of the infrastructure of the terror groups."
"This is a battle for survival of the Jewish people, for survival of the state of Israel," Sharon said on Israel TV.
There were signs, however, that U.S. efforts were having an effect. Earlier Tuesday, Israel pulled out of Tulkarem and Qalqiliya, two of six Palestinian towns it has occupied; troops remained in Nablus, Bethlehem, Jenin and Ramallah and several villages.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, due to arrive in Israel late Thursday, said he was optimistic his mission could bring a truce and lead to negotiations. Speaking in Cairo, Powell said he would meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as well as Sharon and said the United States was willing to deploy observers to monitor any cease-fire.
Israel had said it would keep Arafat isolated in his Ramallah headquarters, where he has been confined since the West Bank campaign began. But Israeli officials said Tuesday they would not prevent Powell from meeting the Palestinian leader.
Israel launched its offensive on March 29 to crush militias after a series of Palestinian suicide bombings. At least 124 Palestinians and 25 Israeli soldiers have been confirmed killed during the incursion, according to Palestinian medics and the Israeli army. The toll was expected to rise; there were reports that dead Palestinians had not been brought out of some areas, especially in the Jenin camp.
Aside from the deaths in Jenin camp, an Israeli soldier was killed Tuesday in the city of Nablus, though the military said it may have been by errant Israeli fire.
The Jenin camp in the northern West Bank, home to more than 13,000 Palestinians, has been the site of the most intense fighting of the Israeli assault, with gunmen inside battling Israeli soldiers for the past week. All but three of Israel's casualties in the campaign have occurred in the camp.
By Tuesday, several hundred gunmen had been pushed into a small area of the camp, with Israeli helicopter gunships providing heavy cover fire for ground troops, witnesses said.
Camp resident Jamal Abdel Salam, an activist in the Islamic militant Hamas group, said the gunmen told him "they said they prefer death to surrender."
In the double ambush, one group of soldiers was walking in a narrow alley when the bombs went off, military spokesman Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey said. One of the blasts was set off by a Palestinian who blew himself up, while the other explosives were wired together, he said, killing several soldiers and bringing a house down on three of them.
Just a few yards away, Israeli soldiers who had entered the courtyard of a house came under heavy fire from Palestinian gunmen on rooftops, and several more soldiers were killed, Kitrey told The Associated Press. The wounded and three bodies were recovered.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said dozens of bodies of Palestinians were piled in the streets of Jenin camp, and residents were prevented from getting food and water. The Israeli organization complained to the Defense Ministry that the military has committed serious human rights violations in the camp, including the demolition of homes with residents still inside. There was no immediate response from the Defense Ministry.
In Nablus, troops took control of the densely populated downtown area, or casbah, after several days of fierce resistance by Palestinian gunmen. At least 41 Palestinians were killed in the fighting there, but the toll was not final because bodies remained in the streets, medics said.
Israeli forces also raided the small town of Dura, south of Hebron, leveling two Palestinian intelligence and security compounds and rounding up men for questioning, Palestinian security officials said. Two Palestinians were killed in exchanges of fire with Israeli forces, the officials said.
In the Palestinian-controlled territory in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, three Israeli tanks and a bulldozer began demolishing a Palestinian security post and olive and orange trees, witnesses said. The area in Deir el-Balah, south of Gaza City, has been the site of several mortar attacks on Israeli troops in recent days. The Israeli military would not comment immediately on the report.
Meanwhile, a standoff at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, built over the traditional birthplace of Jesus, entered its second week, straining delicate relations between Israel and the Vatican. More than 200 armed Palestinians have been holed up in the shrine, ringed by Israeli troops. An Israeli army officer said that negotiations were under way, and that one proposal was to have the gunmen surrender to a third party.
Christian leaders called on Israel to leave Bethlehem after a gunbattle and fire erupted Monday around the church. Some church officials, including a Franciscan friar, angrily accused Israel of provoking the unprecedented violence around the shrine. Sharon said Israel would not lift the siege until the armed men have surrendered.
Israeli officials said the decision was made to pull out of Qalqiliya and Tulkarem which remained encircled by Israeli troops after President Bush sharply called on Israel to end its offensive. Powell said he hoped the withdrawal early Tuesday was "the beginning of the end" of the spiraling violence.
But Sharon's comments suggested an end would not come quickly. Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the West Bank assault has "dealt a heavy blow to the terrorist infrastructure."
The army says it detained 1,600 Palestinians of whom 84 were wanted suspects and seized more than 1,300 assault rifles, 387 sniper rifles, 49 anti-tank grenades, 256 machine guns, 58 bombs and 65 pounds of explosives. It also says it found 11 explosives laboratories.
However, Palestinian officials said the bruising assault has also battered the Palestinian security apparatus which Israel holds responsible for controlling radical groups.
"The Israeli occupation forces have destroyed everything related to the Palestinian security services (and) have arrested the Palestinian policemen and security personnel," said Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qureia.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1918000/1918861.stm
BBC | Israeli Soldiers Die in Jenin Ambush
Tuesday, 9 April, 2002, 22:33 GMT 23:33 UK
The attack was the deadliest for Israel in 18 months
Thirteen Israeli reservists have been killed and seven wounded in an ambush during a day of fierce fighting with Palestinian gunmen in a refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin.
The army said the Palestinians had detonated a number of bombs as the soldiers entered the courtyard of a building in the centre of the camp and gunmen fired from surrounding rooftops.
It is a battle we will continue to pursue... until we carry out the government's decision, which is to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure
Ariel Sharon The number of Palestinian casualties was not immediately known, with Israeli sources saying it could be as many as 150 and the Palestinians suggesting it might be more.
The attack was the single deadliest event for the Israeli army since the Palestinian uprising began 18 months ago.
The report of the ambush came hours after Israeli forces completed their withdrawal from the towns of Qalqilya and Tulkarm, although Israeli tanks remain in a cordon around the towns.
MONITORS SUGGESTED
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was encouraged by the partial withdrawal but hoped it was the start of a bigger withdrawal.
Click here for map of Israeli operationSpeaking in Egypt after meetings with President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, Mr Powell said he intended to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during his visit to Israel on Thursday.
He also said that Washington was prepared to send US observers to monitor a ceasefire between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Israel radio quoted Mr Sharon as saying the secretary of state's decision to meet Mr Arafat was a "tragic mistake".
He was quoted as saying the decision was Mr Powell's private business, but that it would "encourage Arafat to continue with terrorism".
INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE
In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush "believes all parties still have responsibilities, [he is] still looking for results.
Sharon: Powell's meeting with Arafat a "tragic mistake"
"Israel's [responsibility] is withdrawal and to do so now. The Arab nations' responsibilities are to exercise statesmanship and create an environment for peace by condemning terrorism, by stopping the funding of terrorists."
At the United Nations, Arab countries introduced another draft resolution that condemns the Israelis for failing to pull their troops out of Palestinian areas and calls for international presence on the ground.
UN diplomats are holding private discussions about how best to support the latest initiatives to bring peace to the region and how to increase the pressure on both Israelis and Palestinians to heed recent UN resolutions
JENIN FIGHTING
After the ambush in Jenin, the head of Israel's central command, Major General Yitzhak Eitan, said there was an "infrastructure of suicide bombers" in the camp.
"This group of suicide bombers has refused and still refuses to answer all our calls to surrender," General Eitan said.
"We will continue to fight as long as necessary despite the loss. We will continue until we make this camp submit."
The BBC's Richard Miron, reporting from near the refugee camp, said he heard explosions and saw flashes from the camp on Tuesday afternoon.
After the ambush, Mr Sharon said: "This is a difficult day. There was a very tough battle against the terrorist organisations," he said on Israeli TV.
"It is a battle we will continue to pursue... until we carry out the government's decision which is to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in order to head to a political process afterwards which will hopefully lead to an agreement... for peace," he said.
In the village of Dura, near Hebron, heavy fighting was reported in a cemetery just outside the town with at least two Palestinians killed. One Israeli soldier was seriously injured.
Israeli forces also took control of the Old City in Nablus. Palestinian sources said 50 Palestinians were killed in the fighting.
The army said almost 200 Palestinian gunmen had surrendered there, but this could not be independently confirmed.
A stand-off is continuing in Bethlehem, where Palestinian gunmen are holed up in the Church of the Nativity, built over the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
Israel launched its military operation on 29 March after a suicide bombing killed 27 people at the start of the Jewish Passover holiday.
Nearly 2,000 Palestinians have been detained in the campaign. The Israeli prime minister said more than 500 of those detained had Israeli blood on their hands.
A human rights group has accused the Israeli military of torture, and a top Israeli general has issued a special order allowing Palestinians to be detained for up to 18 days without access to a lawyer.
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Sharon Rebuffs Bush on Quick Pullback
Keith B. Richburg The Washington Post
Monday, April 8, 2002 11:42.pm.est.us
JERUSALEM Ignoring calls from the Bush administration to end a 10-day long military campaign that has left about 200 Palestinians dead, Israel used tanks and helicopters Sunday against defiant Palestinian militiamen still holding out in the Northern cities of Nablus and Jenin.
The battle in Nablus was said to be particularly intense, and centered on the densely packed streets of the central Casbah, where the fighting was taking place in narrow alleyways and involved close-in combat from door to door in some cases. A military commander said about 30 Palestinians had been killed in Nablus in the last 48 hours of fighting, but the real toll was unknown because ambulances were being prevented from going into the streets to collect the dead and wounded.
Palestinian medical sources said 12 people were killed Sunday in Nablus, including six fighters who died when a bakery they were using as their firing position was hit by an Israeli shell or missile and collapsed on them. Palestinians said about 42 people, including civilians as well as militiamen, had been killed in Nablus since Israel invaded the town last week.
At least 14 Palestinians and seven Israeli soldiers died in the battle for Jenin in the past 48 hours. The fighting has centered on a Palestinian refugee camp. Six Israeli soldiers were reported wounded in Jenin on Sunday.
The army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Shaul Mofaz, told a weekly cabinet meeting that the operation, named Defensive Shield, had so far resulted in 11 Israeli soldiers dead and 200 Palestinians killed.
The U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell, preparing to embark on a mission to the Middle East, said Sunday that the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, had "taken very much to heart" President George W. Bush's call for an immediate withdrawal from Palestinian areas. (Page 6) But Sharon showed few signs of being willing to comply. A statement issued after Sunday's cabinet meeting made no mention of plans to wind down the operation and withdraw troops. Instead, it quoted Sharon as saying that "a difficult campaign is under way, and that much has been achieved."
Sharon reportedly told Bush in a telephone call only that he would make "every effort to accelerate" the campaign, pointedly ignoring Bush's call for Israeli troops to be withdrawn and the blockade of Palestinian towns and cities to be lifted. Israeli military officials were quoted Sunday as saying the United States understood that the campaign would take time to complete, and that the effort to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties was one reason to proceed methodically and not be rushed.
But in a sign of the emerging clash between the two close allies, the U.S. national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said on the CNN program "Late Edition" that, while Bush understood that a withdrawal could not be "helter-skelter and chaotic," he still did "expect this withdrawal to begin."
Sharon enjoys broad public support for this operation, which has boosted his once-sagging public opinion poll ratings and given the Israeli public a sense that they are finally striking back after a spate of suicide bombings that has killed scores of civilians and shattered the psyche of the Jewish state. At the same time, however, Israel depends on the United States for about $3 billion a year in aid, and would be loath to defy its closest ally openly if the withdrawal calls were accompanied by any implicit linkage to that aid.
Most of the West Bank remained under a military curfew, and the army had declared towns under siege as closed military areas.
Curfews remained in effect, meaning that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had become, literally, prisoners in their own homes, afraid to venture outdoors for fear of being shot by Israeli soldiers. In Ramallah, the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, remained confined with a few aides to a few rooms of a devastated compound that was once his West Bank headquarters.
In Bethlehem, a tense standoff continued at the Church of the Nativity, venerated by millions of Christians worldwide as standing on the site of the birth of Jesus. Inside the church were about 200 Palestinians, including militiamen, police officers and officials, who had fled there after the Israeli invasion of the town last Tuesday. Outside, Israeli troops and armor had ringed the church, and military officials had said the clergymen and nuns trapped inside were being held hostage. by the Palestinians.Various attempts to mediate and find a peaceful end to the standoff had failed, raising fears that Israeli troops might eventually try to storm the ancient church. Israeli military spokesmen strongly denied any intention to assault the church and said troops were under strict orders not to fire in its direction, to avoid damaging it.
In the Vatican, the Reverend David Jaeger, a spokesman for the Franciscan friars order, told Reuters in an interview that the Israeli Army was putting pressure on the Franciscans inside the Nativity Church to leave. Jaeger said the friars were not hostages, but were remaining in the church voluntarily. A top official for the friars in Jerusalem, the Reverend Abdel Masih, also said the friars inside the church were not hostages, but were "there to show solidarity" with the Palestinians inside.
Israel launched its offensive after an attack by a suicide bomber at a Passover Seder in the Northern Israeli town of Netanya. That attack was the worst in a string of terror bombings in Israel and prompted Sharon to begin what he called a new war to uproot what he called the terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian areas. Another elderly victim of the Passover bombing died on Sunday, raising the total to 27 people killed.
There have also been fears that the fighting could widen into a new regional war, with Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon stepping up their efforts to open a second front on Israel's northern border.
Israel said several Israeli border positions had come under attack with mortars and anti-tank missiles, wounding six Israelis in two separate incidents.
Israel responded by firing artillery at Hezbollah positions across the border in Lebanon.
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Mideast Demonstrators Clash in Paris
Demonstrators on Both Sides of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Clash in Paris
P A R I S | The Associated Press
April 7, 2002 7:12.pm.est.us
Hundreds of demonstrators divided over the Middle East conflict battled in Paris on Sunday during a march against anti-Semitism, attacking journalists and stabbing a police officer before police dispersed them with tear gas.
The clash at the historic Place de la Bastille occurred on the sidelines of a march by 50,000 people protesting a wave of attacks on Jewish schools, cemeteries and synagogues in France amid escalating violence in the Middle East.
Hours after the clash, four gasoline bombs were thrown at the synagogue in La Corneuve, a working class suburb north of Paris. The outside walls were blackened, but there was no damage or injuries reported. Two other synagogues in France reported similar weekend attacks.
Violence also was reported at pro-Israeli marches in other French cities.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations also were held throughout Europe on Sunday. In Belgium, at least 10,000 marched through the capital of Brussels, burning American flags close to the U.S. embassy and yelling "Sharon-Bush: murderers." About 5,000 people staged a peaceful rally against Israel in Goteborg, Sweden's second-largest city.
Several hundred pro-Israel militants and as many as 500 counter-demonstrators were involved in the fighting in Paris, police said. About 1,500 police and scores of anti-riot vehicles were deployed, and police fired tear gas into the crowd. One officer was stabbed in the stomach, police said.
One group of militants attacked journalists and smashed their equipment. An Associated Press Television News cameraman was among those roughed up.
The Representative Council of French Jewish Groups, an umbrella organization for the Jewish community in France, denounced the extremists as "young hoodlums." "If we didn't have these incidents, this would have been a successful march," said council President Roger Cukierman.
In Marseille, where about 15,000 people demonstrated, one pro-Israeli marcher was injured in clashes with about 100 counter-demonstrators who yelled "Jews are Assassins!" near the city's picturesque port.
The marches came a day after about 20,000 people held a peaceful demonstration in the capital to express support for Palestinians facing a new Israeli offensive in the West Bank.
The offensive has been accompanied by a wave of anti-Semitic attacks in France. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin deployed more than 1,000 police officers to reinforce patrols at Jewish religious sites in a dozen cities after a synagogue in Marseille burned to the ground following an apparent arson attack on March 31.
On Sunday, police said three assailants hurled gasoline bombs at police guarding another synagogue in Marseille for the second time in a week. No one was injured and no property was damaged.
A similar attack early Saturday left charred walls and broken glass near a synagogue in the Paris suburb of Garges-les-Gonesse, police said Sunday. No one was injured, and no one claimed responsibility.
On Friday, prosecutors said three young men of Moroccan origin confessed to throwing gasoline bombs at a synagogue in the southern city of Montpellier on Thursday.
Before the march Sunday, Jospin urged supporters of both Israelis and Palestinians to express their emotions about the Middle East in a "positive, constructive and respectful" manner and cautioned against France splintering into sectarian communities.
Spain's foreign minister raised the possibility Sunday that the European Union could bring sanctions against Israel to put pressure on for a cease-fire but indicated that agreement among EU members over such a strategy could be difficult.
Minister Josep Pique, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, also insisted that a joint position from the EU, United States and Russia was needed if any solution is to be found to the raging conflict.
Spain is hosting Middle East discussions in Madrid on Wednesday involving Secretary of State Colin Powell, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and EU officials.
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Bush Calls For Israeli Withdrawal as Tanks Advance
April 4, 2002 1:33.pm.est.us
By Christine Hauser
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Tanks thrust into another Palestinian city Thursday shortly before President Bush called on Israel to begin withdrawing from West Bank towns it has reoccupied over the past week.
He said he had told Secretary of State Colin Powell to go to the region to revive efforts to achieve a cease-fire.
Bush, responding to key Arab and Palestinian demands, said Israel "must stop" building Jewish settlements in occupied lands and end its occupation in line with U.N. resolutions.
"The storms of violence cannot go on," Bush said in a White House speech. "Enough is enough."
Bush's speech coincided with another day of violence across the West Bank, where troops battled gunmen in the cities and refugee camps of Nablus and Jenin and tanks made a new incursion into the divided city of Hebron, witnesses said.
Bush called on the Palestinians to stop suicide bombings and had critical words for President Yasser Arafat, besieged by Israeli troops at his West Bank headquarters since last Friday.
Israel and the Palestinians reacted cautiously, with each side saying they would only respond after studying Bush's remarks.
But Israel swiftly announced that it would allow U.S. Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni to visit Arafat, in what would be the first face-to-face contact the Palestinian leader has had with a foreign dignitary since tanks smashed into his compound.
An Israeli spokesman said the government would have no comment on Bush's remarks "for some time."
A Palestinian official said only Arafat's Palestinian Authority could give an official response.
CHANGE OF HEART
In his remarks, Bush shifted his tone from one based largely on pressuring Arafat to prevent suicide bombings against Israel to a new emphasis on steps Israel must take toward peace.
Bush reiterated that Israel had a right to self-defense but said: "Yet, to lay the foundations of future peace, I ask Israel to halt incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas and begin the withdrawal from those cities it has recently occupied."
Bush did not give a timetable, but a senior U.S. official said the United States would like to see this done as soon as possible. Powell was expected to visit the region next week.
Sharon earlier vowed to keep Arafat "isolated" and to continue Israel's military campaign in the West Bank.
In Bethlehem, three explosions and heavy machinegun fire were heard near the Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born.
Israel denied trying to storm the church to pry out about 200 Palestinians, some of them armed, who have been holed up inside for two days.
Bethlehem resembled a ghost town, where fearful residents peeked from their windows at Israeli tanks and armored vehicles lurking in streets littered with debris and mangled cars.
Israeli armor thrust toward the heart of Nablus, the biggest West Bank town, meeting heavy resistance, and tanks shelled a nearby refugee camp, witnesses said. Palestinian hospital officials reported four people dead and seven wounded.
Troops also fought gunmen in the northern city of Jenin, where medical workers said three Palestinians had been killed.
Witnesses said street battles were raging all over Jenin and four helicopter gunships were shooting at the town and a nearby refugee camp, which was wreathed in smoke and dust.
WORLD ALARM
The Israeli offensive launched last Friday after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 26 Israelis has enraged Arabs and provoked deep concern around the world that Middle East violence may be sliding out of control.
Two top European Union envoys arrived in Israel on an urgent mission to press for a cease-fire, but they went home again after failing to win permission to visit Arafat.
"The decision is that (Arafat) will stay in the place where he is and he will be isolated," Sharon told reporters after a late-night meeting of his security cabinet.
Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique criticized the decision after a meeting he and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana held with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in Tel Aviv.
"We are insisting that there be a change of attitude so that everybody can talk to everybody else," Pique said, adding that this could pave the way for a cease-fire and a return to talks.
Sharon, who said troops had rounded up 1,000 Palestinians in their sweep through the West Bank, ruled out any peace talks before "terror, hostilities and incitement" had fully ceased.
He also accused Syria and Iran of being responsible for recent cross-border attacks by Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas and threatened to take "all actions" required to prevent them.
Syrian troops took up new positions in eastern Lebanon in what diplomats saw as an attempt to lessen direct confrontation with Israel and avoid retaliation for Hizbollah attacks.
Palestinians say Sharon's offensive aims to oust or kill Arafat, destroy his Palestinian Authority, scrap interim peace deals signed since 1993 and block their hopes of independence. Israel says it will not harm the Palestinian leader.
At least 1,161 Palestinians and 410 Israelis have been killed in an 18-month-old Palestinian revolt against occupation.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/03/international/03CND-MIDE.html
Israeli Military Sends Tanks Into Largest West Bank City
By SERGE SCHMEMANN with SHERRI DAY
April 3, 2002 7:47.pm.est.us
JERUSALEM | The Israeli military entered Nablus today sending two columns of tanks and armored vehicles into the largest West Bank city under Palestinian control.
The Reuters news agency reported that the two columns entered the town from the northeast and the southwest and quoted witnesses as saying that tanks fired shells at an abandoned Palestinian National Security Forces' position near the village of Beit Iba.
Other reports said that it appeared that at least 100 or more tanks were involved in the engagement.
Meanwhile, more than 100 Palestinian gunmen continued to seek refuge from Israeli soldiers today inside the historic Bethlehem church that is built on the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born.
The group of Palestinians, which includes soldiers and policemen, entered the Church of the Nativity on Tuesday, as Israeli troops swept into Bethlehem in an attempt to quell violence by Palestinian suicide bombers and militias.
No Palestinian suicide bombings were reported so far today.
Meanwhile, the Israelis seized control of the Palestinian towns of Jenin and Salfit in the northern West Bank. They also surrounded the Jenin refugee camp, which is considered a Palestinian stronghold.
Three militiamen and a nurse were killed in the fighting, militia leaders said. Four Israeli soldiers were wounded, an Israeli army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey, said at a news briefing in Jerusalem.
Israeli troops surrounded the Church of the Nativity, essentially trapping the Palestinians. But they refrained from firing on the church, even though they said that Palestinian gunman had shot at them from inside the santuary.
Israeli military officials are under orders from the government not to damage the historic church.
This evening, Palestinian officials were working to get food and medical care for the Palestinian soldiers. They were also believed to be negotiating with Israeli officials to get the gunmen safely out of the building.
Witnesses said priests were forced to allow the gunmen to come into the church on Tuesday as the men, involved in a series of gun battles with Israeli soldiers in helicopters and tanks, literally shot their way inside. As Israeli soldiers gathered around the church's perimeter, the Palestinians rested on the building's stone pews. Israeli forces have also taken over a municipal building overlooking the church, Mayor Hana Nasser of Bethlehem said.
"First of all, most of the guys have run out of bullets and, secondly, we're completely surrounded," a Palestinian policeman told The Associated Press by telephone.
Palestinian officials said that at least 10 of the gunman were wounded and that Israeli officials were not responding to requests for medical assistance or food rations. Since Tuesday, continued fighting between Palestinians and Israelis has prevented ambulances and emergency workers from removing corpses and wounded Palestinians. At least four bodies were strewn throughout Manger Square.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said that in general the army had no interest in preventing Palestinian ambulances from treated the wounded. She told Reuters that she was checking specific claims about the ability of Palestinian medical workers to move about the city.
This evening, the first ambulance allowed to attend to wounded Palestinians took the corpses of three civilians and two wounded men from a district near Manger Square to a nearby hospital. Hospital officials said they expected at least 10 more bodies from the area.
Meanwhile, inside of the church, members of the clergy said they did not have enough supplies to care for the Palestinian gunmen.
"We have a convent for 30 to 40 people and our supplies can last us for two weeks," Johannes Simon, a German monk, told Reuters by telephone. "The Israeli defense minister has assured the apostolic nunico that the basilica will not be attacked. I hope that will stay the situation."
Meanwhile, Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, remained confined today in his battered compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, as Israeli troops and tanks continued to surround it. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Sharon said he would allow Mr. Arafat to leave his crumbling compound in Ramallah, but only if Mr. Arafat would go into exile.
"It has to to be a one-way ticket � he would not be able to return," Mr. Sharon said.
But Mr. Arafat turned down the proposal, saying he would prefer to die a martyr than to leave his country.
"Is it his homeland or ours?" he asked, referring to Mr. Sharon, during an interview on Tuesday with the the television network Al Jazeera.
The fighting between the two groups escalated last week when Israeli mounted a major offensive after a series of Palestinian suicide bombers killed civilians throughout the country.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20020403_17.html
Israel Widens West Bank Assault, Gunmen Holed Up
April 3, 2002 2:19.am.est.us
By Mohammed Assadi
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli tanks rumbled into two West Bank towns on Wednesday and battled Palestinian gunmen, deepening a major offensive as fighters remained holed up in one of Christianity's holiest sites.
Tanks rolled into Salfit and Jenin in the northern West Bank after the Palestinians dismissed Israeli talk of exiling their embattled leader Yasser Arafat, under siege by Israeli forces surrounding his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The U.N. Security Council was due to meet for the fourth time in six days with Palestinian diplomats pushing for a fresh resolution demanding that the council enforce its weekend call for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian-ruled areas.
Israel, apparently with U.S. approval, argues that a cease-fire, also sought by the council, should precede any pullout from Palestinian cities, including Ramallah, where Arafat is confined to a few rooms in his ruined compound.
Concerned that another front could open on its northern border, Israel urged the United Nations to ask Syrian and Lebanese authorities to stop Hizbollah guerrillas from building up their forces across the Lebanese border.
The army and Palestinian security sources said the new incursions met resistance and battles erupted. Loud explosions and gunfire echoed through Jenin as dozens of tanks advanced from three sides and helicopter gunships hovered in the sky.
Palestinian security sources said a 27-year-old woman had been killed and her sister wounded by Israeli gunfire in Jenin, from where several suicide attacks have been launched since an uprising began against Israeli occupation 18 months ago.
A 20-year-old Palestinian gunman was also killed in the Jenin fighting, the sources said.
Shaher Estya, the mayor of Salfit, said all electricity had been cut in the town after the tanks and troops entered at about 3 a.m. (7 p.m. EST Tuesday).
About 200 Palestinian militants, many with weapons, remained in Bethlehem's Church of Nativity, built over the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born.
"They have decided to take this church as a safe harbor," Marc Innaro, a journalist with Italian state broadcaster RAI, told Reuters from inside the church.
He said the gunmen had entered the church on Tuesday afternoon. Israeli tanks were deployed outside but the situation was calm early on Wednesday morning, he said.
An army spokeswoman said dozens of Palestinian militants had forced their way inside and were shooting from the church. She said the army had brought in a representative to mediate.
Israelis and Palestinians had earlier traded charges about whether holy sites were being respected as clashes broke out between Palestinians and advancing Israeli troops.
The Israeli military drive, which began on Friday, has expanded to new areas despite mounting international calls for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to pull out his forces.
Israel says it wants to isolate Arafat and halt suicide attacks that have killed dozens of Israelis. Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to oust Arafat and his Palestinian Authority.
Israel has faced at least seven actual or intended suicide attacks since the Jewish Passover holiday began a week ago.
The latest was in Baka al-Sharkiyeh, near the "Green Line" dividing Israel from the West Bank, in which a Palestinian wearing an explosive vest and intent on carrying out a suicide bombing was killed by troops, an army spokesman said.
Sharon stoked controversy on Tuesday by saying Arafat could have a "one-way ticket" to exile. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Arafat, who has sworn to "die a martyr" rather than bow to Israel, would never leave his homeland voluntarily.
Dovish Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, often at odds with Sharon, said the government had no policy of expelling the Palestinian leader or dismantling the Palestinian Authority.
In a sign of growing concern, European Union president Spain called a rare emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers for Wednesday to discuss the Middle East crisis. A spokesman said the meeting would be in Brussels or Luxembourg.
Oil prices have hit a six-month high on fears that unrest could spread in the Middle East, which holds two-thirds of world oil reserves, though no support has emerged for Iraq's proposal to use an oil embargo to put pressure on Israel's supporters.
Raising the prospect of widening conflict, Lebanese Hizbollah fighters attacked Israeli posts on Tuesday in an area near the border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel responded with air strikes.
Peres wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, asking him to intervene with the Syrian and Lebanese governments "to prevent any actions by Hizbollah or others against Israel."
At least 1,144 Palestinians and 403 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian revolt began in September 2000.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20020402_1161.html
Israeli Leader Ariel Sharon Proposes Yasser Arafat Go Into Exile;
Aides Say He Won't Leave
J E R U S A L E M | The Associated Press
April 2, 2002 4:51.pm.est.us