Israelis keep pressure on Palestinians

By Mohammed Daraghmeh

Associated Press

NABLUS, West Bank – Israeli troops fought fierce battles with Palestinians in the West Bank on Sunday, encountering stiff resistance in the crowded Jenin refugee camp and in the winding alleyways of Nablus’ Old City.

At least 14 Palestinians were killed in Nablus, where dead bodies were sprawled along narrow, rubble-filled streets on the 10th day of Israel’s offensive to weed out militants staging deadly terror attacks on its civilians.

Among those killed Sunday was Ahmed Tabouk, 38, a militia leader linked to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.

Early today, helicopter gunships fired 18 or 19 missiles into a West Bank refugee camp on the western edge of the city of Jenin, witnesses said. The attack came after troops used loudspeakers to warn militants about the attack and urge them to surrender, witnesses said.

Also today, the sound of gunfire and small explosions were heard in Bethlehem outside of the Church of the Nativity, where Palestinian gunmen and clerics have been holed up for seven days, a priest said.

Black smoke also rose from one of the windows of the compound belonging to the church, built over the traditional birthplace of Jesus, but it was not immediately clear what was burning.

The renewed fighting came as Secretary of State Colin Powell, who left Washington for the region late Sunday to try to resolve the crisis, said that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has “taken very much to heart” President Bush’s call Saturday for an immediate withdrawal from Palestinian areas.

But Powell noted that the Israeli leader has yet to set a timetable for a pullback and Bush has not demanded one. “The president doesn’t give orders to a sovereign prime minister of another country,” Powell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

On another front, there were exchanges of fire between Lebanese guerrillas and the Israeli military Sunday. Six Israeli soldiers were wounded, the military said.

In a phone conversation late Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres asked Powell to intervene with Lebanon and Syria to calm the border. They also discussed possibilities for a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians, according to a statement from Peres’ office.

At the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday, Sharon defended the offensive, calling it “a war for our homes.”

“We have no interest in dragging it out, but we have to do the job,” Sharon told Israel TV.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council on Sunday insisted on “immediate implementation” of resolutions demanding an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire and an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities without delay. Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Yehuda Lancry said a withdrawal must be “strictly related and connected to certain Palestinian steps – the cessation of terrorist acts, the meaningful cease-fire.”

With international pressure mounting, there were hints of friction between the Israeli government and its military command. Officers sought more time for the West Bank military operation, but Cabinet ministers talked of bringing it to an end.

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the military should operate as long as possible to “clean out terrorism” in the West Bank, but acknowledged that in light of Bush’s demand, “our hourglass is running out.”

However, the army’s Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz told the Cabinet he needed eight weeks to complete the job, according to Israel Radio.

“The critical element is time,” he said later in a briefing to reporters. “We need time to get to all the centers of terrorism in the West Bank and Gaza.”

Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, chief of military planning, warned that if the army pulls out too soon, “then another series of devastating terror attacks will hit Israel’s cities and streets. And then we’ll go (back) in.”

Israeli troops have taken over most Palestinian population centers in the West Bank in their 10-day-old offensive, Israel’s biggest in two decades. But the fighters in Jenin and Nablus have prevented the Israelis from taking full control of the cities and conducting house-to-house searches for militants, as has been the case elsewhere in the West Bank.

Powell said both sides would have to do more to end the fighting.

“Until the violence goes down at least to a level where you can see that both sides are acting in a responsible way and trying to cooperate in a cease-fire, you’re not going to get to a peace agreement,” Powell said.

Powell said he would meet Arafat “if circumstances permit” – depending on security, access and the meeting agenda.

Elsewhere, guerrillas in Lebanon opened fire on Israeli border posts, wounding six soldiers, including four women, the military said. The Israelis responded with artillery and tank fire.

Sharon charged that Iran and Syria were trying to widen the Palestinian-Israeli fighting to another front, and Mofaz said Israel would hit back at Lebanese power centers if “red lines are crossed.”