The Israeli army fired Saturday evening an anti-tank shell at a building in which Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's compound is located in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Senior aide to Arafat, Nabil Abu Rdeineh said four people were wounded in the shelling, Reuters reported. He added the shells landed inside the Palestinian cabinet meeting room, close to where Arafat has been staying along with some 100 Palestinians and foreign peace activists.
He said Arafat was unharmed but that four of his personal bodyguards were hurt, one of them seriously.
Meanwhile, fierce battles reported Saturday through the densely populated West Bank refugee camps, where Palestinian activists apparently were handing out explosives-packed belts to residents willing to strap them on and challenge Israeli soldiers.
Israeli forces continued to surround Balata refugee camp in Nablus, and at a camp in Jenin. Residents said Israeli helicopter gunships targeting anything that moved were keeping them and Palestinian gunmen pinned inside houses. The two cities and their camps have seen some of the bloodiest battles since Israel began reoccupying Palestinian cities eight days ago.
In Jenin, a local Hamas leader said Palestinian factions have banded together and handed out explosives belts to camp residents to become suicide bombers. "Nobody works as Fatah or Hamas, everybody works together," said Jamal Abu al-Hijah. "All the factions have distributed explosive belts and hand grenades to the people of the camp to defend themselves."
Abu al-Hijah told AP a Palestinian woman, Ilham Dosuki, blew herself up early Saturday when soldiers approached the door to her home in the camp, also killing or injuring some of the soldiers. Separately, he said Israeli tank fire killed three Palestinian policemen overnight in a camp alley.
According to various reports, a total of seven Israeli soldiers were killed in Jenin during Friday and Saturday.
Camp residents, including Abu al-Hijah, were confined to their homes by the fighting outside and received information by keeping in touch on mobile telephones. Reports from inside the camps could not be independently verified. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the report about Dosuki blowing herself up.
The army said Israeli troops fired on a Palestinian man early Saturday in Jenin who had explosives strapped to his body, causing a blast that killed only the man.
One Palestinian fighter said he had counted 30 bodies at least. Other 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 contacted by Reuters. 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.
For his part, Abu al-Hijah said 15 Palestinians were injured in overnight fighting in the camp and that Israeli forces surrounded the camp from all sides. With upper floors of homes hit hard by missile and tank fire, he said people are confined to lower levels.
Mohammed Abu Ghali, director of the Jenin government hospital, said Israeli tanks were not allowing ambulances to evacuate the dead and wounded from the camp.
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 massacres."
The Israeli military also said four Palestinians were shot dead early Saturday at the Askar refugee camp near Nablus — the West Bank's biggest city — as they were placing explosives on the road to the camp.
Palestinian sources, meanwhile, reported that hours earlier a 22-year-old activist identified as Jamil Arboudi from the old city of Nablus blew himself up after charging into a Nablus field occupied by Israeli soldiers. They claimed four Israelis were injured or killed in the assault, but the Israeli army denied any such attack had occurred.
Palestinian security officials said Israeli forces entered Yatta town, just south of Hebron, before dawn Saturday, withdrawing about four hours later after heavy exchanges of fire. Palestinian doctors and security officials in the town said two Palestinians had been killed during the gunbattles.
In Bethlehem, a standoff dragged on for a fifth day between Israeli forces and scores of Palestinian gunmen holed up in the Church of the Nativity.
Five people left the church Saturday and were taken away by Israeli soldiers in an armored personnel carrier. They included two Greek Orthodox priests, a nun and an elderly woman and her daughter, said an Israeli army spokesman.
In the Gaza Strip, Israel handed over to Palestinian authorities remains of two Palestinians killed during the night in gun battles with Israeli forces near Gush Katif settlement. The Islamic Jihad claimed them as its fighters. An Israeli soldier was killed and five others were lightly injured in this incident. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
