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April 8, 2002
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Monday
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Muharram 24, 1423
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Defiant Israelis continue offensive: Bush call ignored
TEL AVIV, April 7: Twelve Palestinians were killed as Israeli tanks continued their sweep of West Bank towns and villages in a campaign army chief Gen Shaul Mofaz said would continue for at least four more weeks.
The army chief’s statement was followed by calls from Washington urging the Israelis to begin an immediate pullback.
Just hours before leaving for the Middle East on Sunday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview with Fox News: “What the president asked Prime Minister Sharon to do was to begin the process of withdrawal and to do it now. I’m pleased to hear that the prime minister says he is expediting his operations.”
Another top US official, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, said while talking to CBS: “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,” Not tomorrow. Not when Secretary Powell gets to the region, but now, to reverse the situation, because there’s a lot at stake here.”
An alarming development for the Israelis was the heightening of tension along the border with Lebanon, where the Hezbollah fired mortar rounds and anti-tank missiles at Israeli troops in the disputed Shebaa Farms.
The 12 Palestinians died during intense fighting in the West Bank city of Nablus while Israeli troops continued to bombard the historic casbah district, witnesses and medical sources said.
They said six
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