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Politics : The Arab-Israeli Solution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Alon who wrote (1128)	4/7/2002 11:41:58 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2279

Sharon Deflects U.S. Pullout Demand; Fighting Rages Sun Apr 7, 7:33 AM ET By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli army said on Sunday it had killed more than 30 armed Palestinians in close combat in the West Bank city of Nablus, as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) defied a U.S. appeal to pull out of Palestinian cities. "There are constant battles -- fighting in alleyways, from house to house," Colonel Aviv Cochavi, commander of Israel's Paratroop Brigade, told Reuters by telephone. "More than 30 terrorists -- armed people -- have been killed in the past 48 hours," he said about the fighting in the narrow casbah, or market, of the northern West Bank city. "Two Israeli soldiers were wounded." Israeli military experts say the army aims to attain as many of its goals -- including capturing Palestinians on a wanted list -- as it can before Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) visits this week, but risks angering its key ally. Washington provides $3 billion in annual aid, equal to about three percent of Israel's gross domestic product. Palestinian figures put the number of Palestinian dead in Nablus at 27. Helicopter gunships and tanks pounded the city in a new wave of attacks that charred buildings and sent white columns of smoke rising. Deflecting a call by President Bush (news - web sites) for a withdrawal from West Bank cities "without delay," Sharon said Israel's desire to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties while sweeping for militants meant the offensive could not be hurried. "This, in itself, prolongs the operation," Sharon said in broadcast remarks at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. He called the offensive a "fateful campaign" to protect Israelis from suicide attackers. Palestinians have charged that innocent civilians have been bearing the brunt of the assault that began after a Palestinian suicide bomber struck in an Israeli hotel during a Passover holiday meal on March 27, killing 27 people. TEST OF WILLS In a test of wills with Israel, Bush told Sharon in a telephone call Saturday that a renewed U.S. peace mission was at stake, a senior U.S. official said. But Israeli commentators forecast the offensive, which has turned Palestinian city centers into war zones and confined hundreds of thousands of frightened residents to their homes, would continue for at least another week. Opinion polls show that Israelis, rocked by suicide bombings that have deepened fears no place in Israel is safe, support overwhelmingly an operation that has boosted support for Sharon. "I expect Israel to heed my advice," Bush said at a news conference Saturday. But Sharon promised only to end the campaign "as expeditiously as possible," the senior U.S. official said. Sharon's office said he told Bush that "Israel will make every effort to accelerate" the operation. Amid mounting European and Arab calls for Israel to withdraw, Bush has toughened his message to Sharon. But Bush also has kept up his sharp criticism of Arafat, saying he failed the test of leadership by not halting anti-Israeli attacks. NO ORDER TO CHANGE BATTLE PLAN The army's spokesman, Brigadier-General Ron Kitrey, said the military had received no orders to change its battle plan. "Things are going ahead as we planned," he told Army Radio about the campaign in which scores of Palestinians and at least 13 Israeli soldiers have been killed. In south Gaza soldiers killed two Palestinians who tried to plant explosives near a Jewish settlement, Morag, the army said. Israeli forces in the West Bank raided two villages near Ramallah and a village outside Hebron. Kitrey said the military was looking in rural areas for militants who had fled cities invaded by the army. Publishing statistics on the operation it calls "Defensive Shield," the army said that since March 28 it had detained 1,413 Palestinians, among them 361 on its wanted list. In fierce West Bank fighting Saturday, soldiers and gunmen battled alley by alley in the crowded Jenin refugee camp. The army said at least 14 Palestinians and seven Israeli soldiers had been killed in the past 48 hours in Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian militants. An armed Palestinian told Reuters he had counted 30 dead bodies in the camp. The accounts could not be independently confirmed because Israel has barred journalists from the camp. STANDOFF CONTINUES AT HOLY SITE A standoff continued at the Church of the Nativity, built over the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. About 200 Palestinians, some armed, have been holed up there since Tuesday and the area is surrounded by Israeli troops. The army says priests and nuns who are still inside are being held captive but some of the priests have denied they are hostages. At least 1,214 Palestinians and 420 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began in September 2000 after peace talks stalled.