OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 11 April — The battle in a refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin ended yesterday after Palestinian fighters ran out of ammunition and food. “The battle is over. There are a large number of martyrs. Many have been arrested. The Israelis are in total control and there is no more fighting,” Jamal Abu Al-Haija, a senior Hamas leader, said by telephone from inside the camp. He said: “Israeli soldiers are moving from house to house, corner to corner, arresting those wanted or killing them.”
Palestinians said most casualties in the camp were civilians, but included fighters such as Mahmoud Tawalbah, a leader of the Islamic Jihad, who was killed yesterday. “At the moment hundreds of Palestinians, including armed fighters, are surrendering to Israeli forces at Jenin refugee camp,” an army spokeswoman said.
The Israeli Army said the camp was quiet, but witnesses in the area reported sporadic shots, explosions and smoke above the camp.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israel of having killed around 500 Palestinians in its West Bank offensive and said Israeli forces were carrying out summary executions of Palestinian prisoners in Jenin. “There are 500 Palestinians killed in the last 12 days in the West Bank, there is a major Israeli crime going on in the West Bank against our people,” he said.
“Today the Israelis assassinated eight Palestinians in Jenin. They had surrendered to the army and they (the army) shot them,” Erekat said.
UN relief workers who have been trying to enter the camp said Israeli bulldozers destroyed homes on the perimeter and that soldiers blew up at least two houses.
UNICEF officials said the Israeli Army expelled some 800 women and children from the Jenin refugee camp. The organization said its aide convoy was stopped by Israeli troops at the southern entrance into Jenin. The women and children were forced out on the streets of Jenin, where they have no protection, food or clothing, UNICEF said, expressing its “serious concern” over the development.
Earlier, a Palestinian bomber killed eight passengers on an Israeli bus, some of them soliders. Personal belongings were strewn across the asphalt, including an olive-colored jacket normally worn by soldiers.
Palestinian officials said the blast on a bus from the northern city of Haifa to Jerusalem shattered Israel’s argument that its military operation in the West Bank would bring security to Israelis shaken by a spate of attacks last month. After the bus blast, Sharon’s security Cabinet decided the military offensive would continue.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the attack “reinforces for the president the need for all parties to step back, for Israel to withdraw, and for the Palestinians and the Arabs to stop the violence, stop the killing”.
His comments echoed a joint statement issued after US Secretary of State Colin Powell met UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar representing the EU, and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in Madrid.
Powell said it was important that he see Arafat on his mission, but he had not yet arranged a meeting. Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel would not prevent Powell from meeting Arafat during a visit to the region. An Israeli political source said a meeting between Powell and Arafat was in the works for Saturday in Ramallah.
On the eve of Powell’s arrival, Sharon appeared to set himself on a collision course with Washington, Israel’s chief ally and provider of $3billion in annual aid. “I hope our great friend the United States understands that this is a war of survival for us...it’s our right to defend our citizens and there should be no pressure put on us not to do that,” Sharon told troops and reporters near Jenin.
“Our wonderful soldiers have to be able to continue this struggle,” he said. “We are doing exactly what President Bush said should be done against terror. Once we do that, once we accomplish that, we have no intention, we will not stay in any zones,” Sharon said.
Israel’s president rejected a Roman Catholic Church proposal for ending a standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, telling Pope John Paul that Israel would not let Palestinians trapped inside escape. Some 200 Palestinian fighters and civilians took refuge in the Bethlehem church complex last week and have remained holed up inside along with 40 Franciscan monks and four nuns. Katzav told the Pope the Israel forces would redeploy only “once the terrorists hand themselves over”.
An Armenian priest was shot and seriously wounded in the church. Palestinians said Israeli forces surrounding the church shot him.
Meanwhile, rising violence between Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces prompted a flurry of diplomacy to head off a potential “second front” emerging from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Hezbollah fighters fired more than 60 rockets and mortars at Israeli troops along the Lebanese border. Israel retaliated with five airstrikes on targets in villages of southern Lebanon, forcing adults and children to flee their homes and schools to safer areas.
A spokesman for the 3,500-strong United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it was the worst violence of its kind since Israel ended a 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in May 2000 and withdrew its troops across the border.
“This is worrying us. This is the worst kind of violence since the Israeli withdrawal. We’re in touch with everybody to contain the situation,” UNIFIL spokesman Timour Goksel said. UNIFIL has been in south Lebanon following an Israeli incursion into Lebanon in 1978.
The violence prompted Annan to urge Hezbollah to end its attacks saying, “no one wants to open a second front” in the Middle East conflict.
