OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 2 March — Ignoring a global outcry, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday sent Israeli troops into another Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank. The troops killed six Palestinians, among them a nine-year-old girl, and injured another 38 in the refugee camp in Jenin. Palestinians said the girl had been hit by fire from an Israeli helicopter.
The Israeli Army said one soldier was killed and another seriously wounded in gunbattles in the camp At least 19 Palestinian policemen, gunmen and civilians and two Israeli soldiers have been killed since the operation began Thursday.
As hospitals in the area appealed for blood donors, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat urged international action to halt “the massacre”.
Aides to the Palestinian leader accuse Israel of mounting the raids to sabotage a Saudi land-for-peace initiative just as it is gaining international momentum. On an unannounced quick trip to Saudi Arabia, CIA Director George Tenet on Thursday conferred with Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, on Abdullah’s peace initiative. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns accompanied Tenet on the one-stop trip and returned to Washington. Burns and Abdullah “had useful discussions on a whole range of subjects,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
United Nations human rights chief Mary Robinson condemned Israel’s incursion into the Palestinian camps as actions that completely flouted international human rights and humanitarian law.
“I would like to express my dismay at the incursion of the IDF in the two refugee camps in Nablus and Jenin in total disregard of international human rights and humanitarian law,” Robinson said in a statement. “I join United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in calling for the immediate withdrawal of the IDF from the refugee camps,” she said.
