JENIN, April 6: About 50 refugees were killed on Saturday as Israeli forces fought defiant Palestinians at a camp in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.
Five Israeli soldiers were also killed in the fierce fighting. In Ramallah, Israeli tanks fired machineguns and tank shells at Yasser Arafat’s besieged offices, injuring three of his bodyguards. But the Palestinian leader remained unhurt.
One of the bodyguards was seriously wounded, but ambulances were unable to reach the compound as Israeli troops refused to let them in.
The Israeli foreign minister warned in an interview that the offensive could continue for more than another week.
An Israeli commander said those who fought on would die. One Palestinian fighter said he had counted 30 bodies at least and the Palestinian Authority asked the world community to intervene immediately to stop “the massacre”.
“They (Palestinian fighters) have their backs against the walls. We trapped them in there, attacked them with the intention they should surrender. Those that don’t surrender, we will kill them,” the commander of Israeli forces in the area, Tat Aluf Eyal Shlein, said on Israel Radio.
“It is determined fighting,” he said, adding: “There have been many casualties on the other side.”
Israeli forces pushed into West Bank cities eight days ago in an offensive they say is aimed at rooting out people responsible for a wave of suicide attacks.
Palestinians, speaking by telephone from near or in the refugee camp, reported seeing dead and wounded in the streets. They said there had been intense bombardment throughout the night by Israeli tanks and helicopters.
“I myself counted 30 dead bodies. There are a tremendous number of injured people. The international community will be shocked by the numbers of victims,” said Abu Irmaila, a Palestinian fighter.
He said Israeli forces were now controlling most of the camp. “We will not give up until the last fighter,” he said.
Jenin has been declared a closed military zone by the Israeli army, preventing journalists access to the area.
In a statement, the Palestinian Authority said it “appeals to the United Nations Security Council, the United States, the European Union and all humanitarian and legal organizations to intervene immediately to stop the massacre”.
A Palestinian woman telephoning from the camp said helicopter bombardment had set houses on fire. “It’s real war. We did not sleep for the past few days. I did not get a wink of sleep,” she said.
PERES: In the interview, Mr Shimon Peres said: “I would say that its total duration, from the beginning, will be in the order of two to three weeks.”
Peres gave the remarks apparently after US President George Bush urged Israel to withdraw its forces from Palestinian cities, declaring “enough is enough”.
Peres also said European diplomats should be allowed to meet the Palestinian leader.
In another interview published in a German newspaper, Peres said the offensive would only end when the “infrastructure of terror” was destroyed and rejected criticism by a number of European leaders about Israel’s actions.
“I wonder what the Europeans would do if they had to deal with suicide bombers every day,” he said in the interview in Welt am Sonntag, released before Sunday’s publication.
Peres — the most dovish member of Israel’s cabinet — said he was against isolating Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
“From the start I have been against this isolation,” Peres said. “We can neither expel him or replace him. We can’t put ourselves in the Palestinians’ place and elect their representatives for them.”
US President George Bush on Saturday urged Israel to withdraw “without delay” from Palestinian territory.
But Israel rejected the plea, saying it would leave only after the “job is finished”.
In his statement Bush said Israel “must halt incursions in the Palestinan controlled areas and begin to withdraw without delay from the areas it has occupied.”
“My words to Israel are the same today as they were a couple of days ago: withdraw without delay.”
“I expect Israel to heed my advice, and I expect for the Palestinians to reject terror.”—Reuters/AFP
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