Fierce fighting as Israeli tanks overrun Nablus
Israeli troops took control of the largest city in the West Bank today as hundreds of Palestinian gunmen barricaded in a nearby refugee camp put up fierce resistance.
In Bethlehem, the army denied reports they had stormed the Church of the Nativity, where scores of Palestinian fighters are hiding with civilians. They said they were only chasing gunmen in the area.
There were no signs of a let-up today in Israel’s biggest military operation in a generation. After dozens of tanks rolled into Nablus, only the West Bank towns of Jericho and Hebron remained under Palestinian control.
The claims of an assault on the church in Bethlehem - built over the traditional birthplace of Christ - could not be independenty checked. All six towns occupied by Israel over the last week have been declared closed military areas.
At least five Palestinians were killed in today’s fighting, including three gunmen and a church caretaker, who witnesses said was shot while walking to the Church of the Nativity from his home.
As international concern over the bloodshed grew, a senior European diplomat said US mediation efforts had failed, and that Washington should step aside as the primary peacemaker.
Israel, meanwhile, blocked a high-level European mediation attempt, barring EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique from meeting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has been in what amounts to Israeli custody for a week.
Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield last Friday to crush Palestinian militias that have carried out deadly attacks on Israeli civilians, including seven suicide bombings in the past week.
The move was triggered by an attack at the start of the Passover holiday that killed 26 Israelis at a coastal hotel in Netanya.
Since then, Israeli forces have taken over six major West Bank towns and cities - Ramallah, Qalqiliya, Jenin, Tulkarem, Bethlehem, Nablus - and have arrested more than 1,100 Palestinians.
The incursion into Nablus began late last night, with dozens of tanks rolling into the city of 180,000. Gunmen took refuge in the Casbah, or old city, and in four adjacent refugee camps, where alleys are too narrow for tanks to enter.
A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli fire when he opened a window in his apartment in Nablus, Palestinian security officials said. Residents said more than 80 armoured vehicles were deployed in and around the main square and soldiers took over high-rise buildings.
The heaviest fighting raged in the Jenin refugee camp, a militant stronghold where hundreds of gunmen are holed up. Israeli commandos moved house-to-house, covered by fire from helicopters and tanks.
Soldiers in the camp used radios to call for helicopter fire on a particular house. The commander of the operation, Brigadier General Eyal Shlein, said he would consider the raid a success when gunmen had been killed or taken captive.
‘‘When I get to every single spot in the refugee camp and we have killed a few, that is how I will know (it was a success),’’ Shlein said. ‘‘We are not leaving any escape routes.’’
Palestinians in the camp said three gunmen were killed in the fighting, and that armed men had surrounded two buildings taken over by Israeli troops.
Gunmen in the camp said they believed this was their last stand, judging by the army sweeps through other West Bank towns. They said they had made large numbers of home-made bombs in preparation.
Ali Safouri, a militia leader, said he and his men were trying to make every bullet count. ‘‘We use it for sniping only, we are not shooting in all directions,’’ Safouri said by telephone.
The standoff at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity began on Tuesday, the day Israeli forces seized the biblical town. After several hours of heavy fighting around Manger Square, dozens of gunmen ran into the basilica and, according to witnesses, forced their way inside, where they remain along with several dozen clergy.
A video of the incident, released today by the Israeli military, showed the gunmen, a dozen at a time, running from the nearby Palace Hotel into the church, their heavy footfalls splashing puddles. ‘‘One at a time,’’ shouted one of the men. Wearing military vests and carrying rifles, each ran as another turned and provided cover, wildly shooting an assault rifle.
Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said troops would not storm the church, but army officials said the gunmen would not be allowed to go free.
Palestinians inside the church today said Israeli troops blew open a back door leading into a small courtyard adjacent to the church. Mazen Hassan, a Palestinian policeman, said soldiers fired into the courtyard, wounding three people.
Lieutenant Colonel Olivier Rafowicz, an Israeli army spokesman, denied soldiers were in the church compound. Other military officials said there was shooting in nearby Manger Square, and that troops were pursuing gunmen.
Rafowicz said Israel has been offering safe passage out of the church for anyone wishing it, and that Palestinian officials holed up inside ‘‘are preventing the people from leaving.’’
Father Ibrahim Faltas, the superior of the Franciscan community in the church, said food supplies had run low. ‘The situation is critical. Please help us,’’ the priest said by phone. Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, said mediation efforts were under way.
Elsewhere in Bethlehem, army footage showed about a dozen gunmen surrendering, coming out of a house one at a time and holding rifles over their heads as several members of the International Committee of the Red Cross watched.
Soldiers looked down from tanks and armoured vehicles, while other troops grabbed rifles from the men and lined them up on their knees, with their hands on top of their heads. Looking on, one of the international workers, sought to calm the soldiers and the gunmen, saying slowly in a shaky voice, ‘‘We are OK. We are OK.’’
In Israel, President Moshe Katsav said a fence should be built between Israel and the West Bank to stop suicide bombers. Though it has approved a buffer zone between Israel and the West Bank in principle, the Israeli government has been hesitant to take steps that could be interpreted as drawing a border relinquishing most or all of the West Bank, where Israel has about 130 settlements.
In Brussels, Romano Prodi, head of the EU’s Executive Commission, urged Washington to move aside as the main peacemaker and make room for a broad alliance of nations - including the EU, the Russians and moderate Arab nations - to mediate a comprehensive peace deal for the region.
‘‘It is clear (American) mediation efforts have failed and we need new mediation’’ to avoid an all-out regional war, Prodi said.
