http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20020228/ts/israel_palestinians.html
By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer
Thursday February 28 12:31 PM ET
NABLUS, West Bank (AP) - Backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, Israeli troops launched a major
assault on two West Bank refugee camps Thursday, a first in 17 months of fighting. Nine
Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in heavy gun battles, and more than 90
Palestinians were wounded, doctors said.
The military said the Balata and Jenin camps were strongholds of Palestinian militants, and that
Thursday's operation was intended to show that ``there is no refuge for terror.'' A militia leader
said his men would die rather than surrender.
The fighting came just hours after Saudi Arabia presented its new peace initiative in a world
forum for the first time. Under the proposal, the Arab world would make peace with Israel in
exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from the territories it occupied in the 1967 Mideast war.
Also late Wednesday, a Palestinian woman with an explosives belt blew herself up near an Israeli
checkpoint. Dareen Abu Aisheh, a 21-year-old English literature student at An Najah University in
the West Bank town of Nablus, was the second woman to do that since the fighting began in
September 2000. Three Israeli policemen as well as two Palestinians who were in a car with Abu
Aisheh were hurt in the incident.
Thursday's clashes brought to 1,006 the number of deaths on the Palestinian side in the past 17
months. On the Israeli side, 288 people have been killed.
Israeli troops have repeatedly entered Palestinian towns and villages, but have largely stayed out
of the 27 refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites), many of them
strongholds of militants.
Tanks cannot enter the narrow alleys of the crowded camps, and the military has not sent in large
ground forces, apparently to avoid Israeli casualties. Referring to the gunmen's boasting that
Israeli soldiers would not dare enter the camps, the army said in a statement that until
Thursday's operation, ``the terror organizations saw these refugee camps as a safe haven from the
Israeli security forces.''
After a day of fighting at Balata, Israeli troops stormed Palestinian homes on the outskirts of
the camp at nightfall Thursday, searching for wanted men and weapons, witnesses said.
In several cases, troops blew holes into walls to get from one building to the next and to avoid
being exposed to fire from Palestinian militiamen lurking in nearby alleys. The ground forces were
backed up by tanks and helicopters firing machine guns.
The Israeli army began taking up positions around Balata last week, after six Israeli soldiers
were killed in the West Bank by gunmen from the Al Aqsa Brigades militia. A leader of the militia,
Nasser Awais, and hundreds of his followers are holed up in Balata, home to 20,000 Palestinians.
Speaking by phone as Thursday's assault got under way, Awais said that ``Israeli troops will not
enter the camp except over our dead bodies.''
Early Thursday, dozens of Israeli tanks surrounded the camp, and helicopter gunships flew
overhead. Gunmen patrolling the outskirts of Balata alerted each other by mobile phones and began
firing at the Israeli forces.
Israeli troops fired heavy machine guns from the tanks and helicopters, and at least two Israeli
missiles hit Balata, plunging it into darkness. Militiamen set off dozens of homemade bombs.
Gunman Mohannad Sharaya, 23, said that at one point, he and six militiamen were seeking cover in
an alley when Israeli troops from a hilltop post overlooking the camp aimed a laserbeam at the
group to guide their fire.
Israeli troops also took up positions in an elementary school in the camp. Gunmen fired
sporadically at the school, but the military denied claims that soldiers were trapped inside the
school.
At one point, a reporter saw soldiers in a helicopter briefly firing a machine gun toward about
200 Palestinian civilians gathered near the entrance of the camp.
Two Palestinians - a gunman and a civilian - and an Israeli soldier were killed. Palestinian
doctors said more than 85 people were wounded in Balata, most of them gunmen.
Residents said they heard on Israel Radio's Arabic language service that civilians were being
offered to leave the camp until 3 p.m., though such announcement was never made over camp
loudspeakers.
Several young women and children rushed out of the camp. ``I want my children to survive, but our
men will never leave the camp,'' said Fatma Said, who was leaving with her three children,
including a 7-month-old baby in her arms.
Israeli tanks also entered the West Bank town of Jenin from three directions, Palestinians said,
surrounding the refugee camp at the western edge of the town.
Palestinians said seven Palestinian policemen were killed in exchanges of fire, and eight people
were wounded, including several civilians. In one incident, fighting erupted outside the home of
the Jenin police chief. Two of the chief's guards and his 24-year-old son were killed, witnesses
said.
Ahmed Abdel Rahman, an adviser to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), accused
Israel of trying to destroy hopes for peace. Asked about Israel's charge that the camps are
strongholds of militants, Abdel Rahman said: ``We cannot prevent the Palestinians from defending
themselves and their land as long as there is occupation.''
The violence persisted despite local efforts to calm the tensions and a Saudi proposal to end the
decades-old Israel-Arab conflict.
Israeli and Palestinian security commander met Thursday to consider the situation in the Gaza
Strip, said Gaza police chief Brig. Gen. Abdel Razek Majaidie.
On Tuesday, the security chiefs had a stormy meeting, trading demands and charges. The
Palestinians asked the Israelis for a timetable for lifting the many roadblocks in the West Bank
and Gaza, imposed shortly after the violence began. Israel told the Palestinians that they must
dismantle the Fatah (news - web sites) militias.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia raised its Middle East peace initiative for the first time in a world
forum Wednesday night, while accusing Israel of ``systematic terrorism'' and trying to expel the
Palestinians.
Israel expressed disappointment, saying it had hoped for peaceful words - not confrontational
language.
Saudi Arabia's U.N. Ambassador Fawzi Shobokshi was a late addition to speakers at a two-day open
meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the Mideast, and his address was eagerly awaited because
of the attention focused on Crown Prince Abdullah's proposal, floated in Saudi and American media
this month.
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