NABLUS, West Bank, 8 April — Israeli troops stepped up its offensive yesterday against Palestinians amid mixed signals from the United States and worldwide protests as the death toll kept mounting on the 10th day of the brutal rampage. At least 15 Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops yesterday.
Israeli Army chief Gen. Shaul Mofaz estimated yesterday his soldiers had killed 200 Palestinians since the March 29 launch of the offensive, but Palestinians say the toll was much higher.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell denied that Washington had set an ultimatum for Israel to pull out of occupied towns despite President George W. Bush calling for withdrawal “without delay”. Powell, however, said he was pleased to hear that the prime minister (Sharon) intended to speed up the withdrawal.
US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, stressed yesterday that Israel must begin its troop withdrawal “now, without delay, not tomorrow.”
“We understand that a military mobilization of this kind, an operation of this size, cannot be undone in moments, but the important point is to begin now, without delay,” she said on CBS television from Crawford, Texas.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has shrugged off US calls to withdraw immediately and raised the possibility of “disagreements” with Washington over the ongoing military operations.
“One of our priorities is to maintain our relations with our friends, in particular with the United States. But it is true that there could be disagreements,” Sharon said in state television.
Sharon said the crackdown on the Palestinians was at “a point of no return.”
Informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic daily that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had tried during his talks with President George W. Bush in Texas to get US support for a UN endorsement of the Middle East peace plan proposed by Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard.
In Nablus and Jenin, fierce combat between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters raged again yesterday.
Troops and tanks also rolled into the village of Beit Rima, just outside the city of Ramallah where Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat remains bottled up by Israeli forces in his devastated West Bank headquarters.
The Palestinian leadership charged Bush had given Sharon the green light to continue the assault by not fixing a pullout date and sending Powell to five nations before he comes to Israel on Thursday or Friday.
Powell yesterday again called on besieged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to keep Palestinian activists in check and denied the US had set Israel an ultimatum to withdraw from the territories.
“Whether it is his (Arafat’s) last chance or not, we don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t have any more chances,” said Powell.
“But in this crisis he has got to act like a leader. He has got to speak out against this kind of violence we are seeing and do everything in his power — as restricted as those powers are, they are still there — to try to control the passions and to help us get out of this crisis.”
Powell said it was yet to be decided whether he would meet Arafat on his imminent trip to the Middle East.
He is due in Morocco on Monday, where he is scheduled to hold talks with Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard.
Meanwhile, 18 Palestinians were reported killed yesterday — twelve in Nablus and two in the Gaza Strip. A leading member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Muyad Jamail, 23, was killed by Israeli troops in Nablus Casbah. Three Palestinians were killed elsewhere.
Witnesses and medical sources said six Palestinians were killed in Al-Yasmin quarter after a missile hit a bakery where they were based. Witnesses said the building collapsed on top of them.
Six other Palestinians, including five policemen and one civilian, died from wounds sustained from Israeli firing.
With reporters and medics barred from almost all combat areas, there has been no independent confirmation of the death toll.
Israeli forces yesterday rounded up around 100 people, including a local judge, Palestinian security officials said. The arrests in Bethlehem and the adjacent village of Ad-Doha netted judge Mohammed Al-Hrubi, the head of the local Israeli-Palestinian civil liaisons committee, Mohammed Al-Khatib and a 15-year-old girl, Shereen Rabbaa, the officials said.
Army spokesman Gen. Ron Kitrey said fighting continued in the Jenin camp yesterday and that no orders had been given to speed up the operation.
Israeli Army chief Gen. Shaul Mofaz told Knesset (Israeli Parliament) yesterday that the army needed around three more weeks to complete its military sweep of Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank.
In Nablus, tanks and helicopters continued to pound the city, where residents said many houses and some mosques were destroyed by missiles fired from Apache attack helicopters.
Around 200 armed gunmen remained inside Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity on the sixth day of a standoff with Israeli troops.
The Palestinians said Saturday that dozens of wounded lay bloodied in the streets, unable to receive help because the Israelis had blocked ambulances, and asked world leaders to intervene.
Ron Leshem, a correspondent for Israel’s top-selling Yediot Aharonot newpaper, was allowed into the Jenin refugee camp with Israeli troops on Saturday and drew a chilling picture of the battle.
“Helicopter gunships fire missiles, the tanks fire shells, the machine guns leave paths of fire and sparks,” he reported. “On the ground are hundreds of bombs, a few car bombs, dozens of snipers and piles of rubble.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned yesterday that attempts to remove Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the political scene could radicalize the situation dangerously in the Arab world.
“Even the mere attempt to oust him — I’m not even saying one that would succeed — would provoke a radicalization of certain forces in the Middle East whose influence would only be strengthened,” he warned in a briefing to journalists on the eve of a trip to Germany.
The army blitz has unleashed fury worldwide. More than a million people thronged the streets of the Moroccan capital of Rabat, on a day of protests in other nations over the Israeli campaign.
In Lebanon, more than 5,000 Palestinians demonstrated yesterday in the southern city of Tyre, threatening to attack embassies and hijack civilian planes if any harm comes to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
In Hebron, a group of journalists were targeted by Israeli fire at the entrance of the reoccupied village of Yatta yesterday, an AFP reporter in the group said.
A camera crew from the private Spanish network Antena 3 as well as an AFP photographer and reporter attempted to walk toward a tank blocking access to the village, which was invaded on Saturday.
Clearly identified by flak jackets bearing a large TV inscription and waving a white flag, the journalists were nevertheless shot at by a soldier armed with a machine gun. Nobody was injured.
In Gaza City, a military court sentenced to death six Palestinians accused of collaborating with the Israelis, Palestinian security sources said. But one of them, 15-year-old Abdelrahman Hamdan, had his sentence commuted to life in prison because of his age. The sentences must be confirmed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The five other Palestinians condemned to death were Muhammad Arai, Sami Hiji, Souer Zakut, Hossam Al-Hissi and Mahmud Sharif.
