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Israel won't back down from armed campaign
Compiled from Times wires HAIFA, Israel -- On the eve of a crucial U.S. diplomatic drive, Israel on Wednesday again refused to withdraw from the West Bank cities it invaded 13 days ago and said a deadly suicide bombing on a bus earlier in the day showed why the offensive must continue. As the Israeli army reported that it had finally succeeded in conquering the embattled Jenin refugee camp, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and members of his government told the United States that while they appreciate America's friendship, Israel will wage its war on Palestinian militants as it sees fit. "I hope our great friend the United States understands that this is a war of survival for us," Sharon told reporters during a visit to troops at an army base overlooking the Jenin camp. "It is our right to defend our citizens, and there should be no pressure put on us not to do that." In Madrid, Secretary of State Colin Powell and officials from three other major powers called for an immediate end to Israel's military operation in the West Bank and for both Israelis and Palestinians to end "this senseless confrontation." Powell is expected to arrive in Israel late today in an attempt to broker a cease-fire. In the West Bank, the Israeli operation continued. In the Jenin camp, mass surrenders were reported, along with large numbers of deaths. Scores of Palestinians and about 30 Israeli soldiers were killed in a week of fighting. Israel said Palestinian gunmen put up their stiffest resistance in Jenin; Palestinian officials accused Israel of "massacres." In Bethlehem, a monk was shot and wounded when he stuck his head out of the besieged Church of the Nativity. Israeli troops said it was unclear who shot him. And outside the Israeli port city of Haifa, a Palestinian man with explosives strapped to his waist boarded bus No. 960 bound for Jerusalem during Wednesday morning's rush hour. About 20 minutes later, he detonated his bomb, killing himself and eight Israelis, most of them police on the way to work. Fourteen people were injured. The radical Islamic group Hamas claimed responsibility. As he was being wheeled to surgery, bus driver Yehuda Akst said the bomber didn't do anything to rouse suspicion. He may even have been wearing an Israeli army uniform, Akst said. In the wake of the attack, the first suicide bombing to target civilians in a week, Sharon again rejected American and international pleas that Israeli forces pull out of the West Bank. Hundreds of right-wing Israelis rallied Wednesday night outside the U.S. consulate in West Jerusalem to demand that the United States cease its pressure on the Sharon government. "Bush, Don't Push!" read one gigantic banner. Early today, Israeli forces moved into the central West Bank village of Ber Zeit. Troops occupied the police station and searched house to house, witnesses said. The soldiers met no resistance. At the same time, the Defense Ministry announced a pullout from three villages: Yatta, Qabatya and Samua. The Jenin refugee camp, site of the last Palestinian resistance, succumbed after a week of shelling by Israeli tanks and helicopters. By midmorning, the resistance appeared to be all but over, although sporadic shooting was reported throughout the afternoon. One group of about 50 holdouts was reported to have become trapped deep inside the camp without ammunition as Israel bulldozers were bearing down. Jamal Hweil, one of the men, telephoned the Al-Jazeera television network to claim that the Israeli army was refusing their surrender. Hweil said the men feared that the bulldozers would demolish their hideout with them inside. Residents of Jenin who were contacted by telephone said Israeli helicopters continued flying over the camp throughout the day without firing. But they said bulldozers went into action around noon, knocking down homes damaged by the assault and opening wide, dusty avenues between those left standing. Omar abu Rashid, a Jenin businessman whose house overlooks the camp from half a mile away, said he saw five bulldozers demolish several hundred of the camp's 2,000 to 2,500 homes. Refugee families, ordered into the streets by the army, were dispersed to various neighboring villages. Men were separated from women. Residents complained of a large number of civilian casualties and the destruction of water, electrical and sewage infrastructure along with large amounts of private property: homes, stores and cars. Journalists were barred from Jenin. Two convoys, from UNICEF and the International Committee for the Red Cross, were allowed into the city to drop off food, medicine, other relief supplies and a generator for the city's hospital but were barred from the camp. "In Jenin, people talked about 500 people killed in the camp," said Bertrand Bainbel, UNICEF coordinator in the occupied territories. "I cannot tell you whether it's reliable or not." Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian official, also claimed about 500 Palestinians had been killed in Jenin and in Nablus, the second-largest West Bank city, since the offensive began late last month in what he labeled a string of "Israeli massacres." Among the dead was Mohammed Nursi Tawalbeh, the head of the radical Islamic Jihad in Jenin. -- Information from the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press was used in this report.
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From the Times wire desk
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