Sharon says Israeli offensive will go on

AP

08 April 2002

Israel's offensive in the West Bank will continue despite demands from around the world that a troop withdrawal begin immediately, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the Knesset today.

He maintained hhis defiant stance as as helicopter gunships pounded a Palestinian refugee camp and a fire broke out during fighting near Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

Addressing a special session of the parliament, Mr Sharon said he had promised President George Bush to expedite the campaign, now in its 11th day.

The heaviest fighting raged in the West Bank city of Nablus and the Jenin refugee camp where hundreds of gunmen have been battling Israeli soldiers. Israeli officials estimated that more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in Jenin.

Before daybreak, Israeli attack helicopters began firing missiles at the camp after militants ignored calls to surrender. Jamal Abdel Salam, a camp resident and activist in the Islamic militant Hamas group, said army bulldozers flattened homes, and that dozen of houses had already been destroyed.

By early afternoon, Israeli forces controlled almost the entire camp, the army said. The Israeli military said about 150 men put down their weapons and emerged from the camp. Mr Abdel Salam said only women, children and the elderly left the camp. The militants were staying put, ready to fight to the death, he said.

In Nablus, the West Bank's largest city, smoke rose from the Old City, a densely populated maze of stone buildings and narrow streets. Army officials said troops controlled about half of the Old City, and that dozens of gunmen surrendered.

In Bethlehem, Israeli troops ringing the Church of the Nativity exchanged fire with armed Palestinians holed up in the shrine, built over the birthplace ofn Christ. A senior Israeli army officer said two border policemen who were shot and wounded by Palestinians threw a smoke grenade into the compound, sparking a fire.

A Palestinian policeman, who was trying to extinguish the fire, was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper.

Israeli officials and senior Franciscans in Rome, whose clerics are among those inside, appeared increasingly at odds as the standoff stretched into a seventh day.

Mr Sharon told parliament that soldiers would surround the church until the gunmen release the clerics, whom he described as hostages, and surrender. The Franciscans accused Israel of violating a pledge not to attack the church. Church officials said the clerics were not hostages and would remain in the compound.

The fire burned for about an hour in a second–floor meeting hall above the courtyard of St. Katherine's, a Roman Catholic church adjacent to the Church of the Nativity. The fire destroyed a piano, chairs, altar cloths and ceremonial cups in the meeting hall, clerics said. Israeli troops searched Palestinian firefighters who came to extinguish the blaze. The firefighters were eventually allowed to go to Manger Square and put out the fire by spraying water over the compound's wall.

More than 200 armed Palestinians have been holed up in the church compound for seven days, ringed by Israeli forces. Israeli soldiers have been using loudspeakers to demand that the gunmen surrender, but they have refused to come out. The army has said troops would not storm the church.

A spokesman for the office of the Custodian of Catholic sites in the Holy Land characterized Monday's incident as an Israeli attack. "I've been warning for days now that an attack is imminent and on behalf of my brothers calling on the church and the world to intervene with the Israeli government," the Rev. David Jaeger told Associated Press Television News in Rome.

More than 1,500 Palestinians have been arrested by Israel in the last 11 days, including 500 to 600 fugitives, among them 70 to 80 involved in planning attacks on Israelis, Israeli military officials said.

In his speech to parliament, Mr Sharon also said he was willing to meet Arab leaders anywhere without preconditions to discuss a peace proposal. He said a recent pan–Arab call for Israel's withdrawal from all occupied Arab lands in exchange for comprehensive peace, had "positive elements."

But he said Israel cannot accept a return of Palestinian refugees, an issue Arab nations say must be resolved before they establish normal relations with Israel.

Along Israel's northern border, exchanges of fire between Lebanese guerrillas and Israeli forces injured seven Israeli soldiers Sunday, the military said. Additional reservists would be sent to the Lebanese–Israeli border area, the military said.

Also from the Middle East section.