Since late Monday Israel has been carrying out its largest military offensive in the West Bank and Gaza Strip against the Palestinians since the begining of the intifadah. Palestinian sources said more than 30 Palestinians were killed.
Israeli tanks and troops stormed into a Gaza Strip refugee camp late Monday and waged a fierce gunbattle that killed at least 22 Palestinians, Palestinian sources said. Tanks were pulling back but surrounded the camp early Tuesday.
Israeli tanks also streamed into Ramallah early Tuesday, hours after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced he was lifting the travel ban on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
In another incident, one Israeli was killed and another was wounded Tuesday morning in a shooting attack near the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Sefer.
The injured man sustained moderate-to-serious wounds. The Palestinian gunmen shot at the Israelis from a passing car and managed to escape.
Jabalya
Most of the casualties came as 20 Israeli tanks supported by helicopter gunships roared into northern Gaza late Monday, exchanging heavy fire with Palestinian security forces and gunmen on the edge of the Jabalya refugee camp.
The Israeli army said the attack started shortly after Palestinian activists fired mortar rounds at a Jewish settlement.
The tanks and helicopters fired heavy machine guns, while troops seized several buildings on the edge of Jabalya and took up positions on the rooftops, witnesses said. Amid the nonstop sound of gunfire, mosque loudspeakers called on Palestinians to resist, reported AP.
Ambulances rushed toward the camp but rescue workers could not reach all of the wounded and some lay bleeding in the streets, witnesses said. Dozens of Palestinians fled the camp for a nearby Gaza City neighborhood.
At least 22 Palestinians were killed and more than 80 were injured, doctors said. Most were from Palestinian security forces; others were civilians, they said.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat described the Jabalya incursion as a "bloodbath."
Israeli military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the operation was aimed at finding rockets and that civilians were not targeted.
Witnesses said the soldiers had blown up a foundry and two homes, one of them of a man who attacked a Tel Aviv restaurant last week, killing three people before he was shot dead himself. An Israeli military source said the foundry had been used by the Hamas movement to produce short-range Qassam rockets.
On Tuesday noon, Israeli helicopters struck a Force 17 command center in Khan Yunis area. Occupation troops were also operating in Wadi Salka, adjacent to Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom, Israel Radio reported.
Ramallah
Early Tuesday, at least 10 tanks entered Ramallah from four directions, exchanging fire with Palestinian gunmen as they moved toward the center of the city, Palestinian security officials said.
The Israeli army said soldiers also moved into the Amari refugee camp next to Ramallah. It added the army had no intention of targeting Arafat.
Witnesses at the City Inn Palace Hotel near al-Amari said Israeli gunfire barely missed a large group of journalists standing on the roof. Five bullets slammed into a camera used by U.S. television network ABC, reported Reuters.
At least five Palestinians, including a police officer and an 18-year-old, were killed overnight in the Ramallah area. Two Israeli soldiers were wounded lightly.
Israeli soldiers in sections of the city have called on Palestinian men to turn themselves in, Israel Radio reported.
A Palestinian teenager girl died Tuesday of wounds received from Israeli fire in the West Bank city of Hebron a week ago, hospital sources said.
PA
For its part the Palestinian leadership strongly condemned the new Israeli aggression and said in a statement that "the Palestinian people, who are engaged in defending its land and national presence, will undoubtedly realize independence and build an independent Palestinian state through the unshakable will and unrelenting perseverance this people is armed with."
The Palestinian Authority Tuesday called on the UN Security Council to "immediately" send international observers following the death of more than 30 Palestinians in the Israeli operations, Yasser Arafat's advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
"The Palestinian Authority calls on the Security Council to immediately send international observers and holds the Israeli government responsible for this dangerous escalation and for the deterioration of the situation", Abu Rudeina said.
He added that "the invasion of Ramallah this morning and the massacres committed during the night in Jabaliya are proof of the determination of the government (of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon to destroy all chances for saving the situation".
For his part, Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Israel prime minister Ariel Sharon's son, Omri, had informed the Palestinians that Israel would reoccupy Ramallah but not attack Arafat's office. "This is a major offensive aimed at reoccupying the West Bank and Gaza Strip," Abed Rabbo said. "Sending Zinni to the region was a maneuver because we believe the United States was informed of Sharon's major offensive and intentions."
Sharon has softened some positions ahead of Thursday's arrival of U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni. The Israeli leader said he is no longer insisting on a week of complete calm before moving ahead with a U.S. truce plan.
Palestinians have described Sharon's recent concessions as cosmetic, saying they are intended to deflect criticism from the tough Israeli military actions. "There are no positive intentions behind this decision," Abed Rabbo said of the announcement to lift the travel ban on Arafat. "What is needed from the Israeli government is to immediately stop its crimes and massacres." Erakat criticized Sharon’s move as inadequate because the decision still confines Arafat to the Palestinian territories.
One of the prominent leaders in the Gaza Strip of the Islamic group Hamas, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, threatened more attacks in Israel. "We have no choice but to kill the occupier, to kill him everywhere, every village and every city. There's no other way to defend ourselves," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
