Death toll surpasses 1,000 as West Bank fighting rages

BALATA REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank -- The Israeli military attacked two West Bank refugee camps with helicopter gunships, tanks and paratroopers Thursday in a high-stakes attempt to break strongholds of Palestinian militants. An Israeli soldier and 12 Palestinians were killed -- pushing the Palestinian toll past 1,000 in 17 months of fighting.

It was the first time Israeli troops have stormed refugee camps in the current Mideast conflict.

The fierce, sustained gunbattles began before dawn and carried on past sundown in the camps, on the edge of Nablus and the fringes of Jenin, Palestinian towns less than 20 miles apart.

A thirteenth Palestinian was shot dead near the southern edge of Jerusalem in heavy exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in adjacent towns and villages.

Refugee camps raided

By Thursday night, large numbers of Israeli troops had taken over several buildings and houses, and were going house-to-house in the Balata camp, though there was no sign Palestinian militiamen were prepared to surrender. Altogether, almost 100 Palestinians were injured, hospitals and Palestinian officials said.

"The camp is effectively under (Israeli military) control," said Israeli Col. Avi Cohavi, head of the paratrooper brigade carrying out the operation.

"It's completely surrounded and we are in commanding positions."

Early Friday, Israeli renewed its actions, sending tanks and ground troops from Jenin's fringes deeper into the refugee camp.

The Israeli soldiers began searching Palestinian houses at around 4 a.m. Friday, residents said.

As Israeli helicopters hovered overhead, gunbattles erupted on the ground and at least three Palestinian fighters were hurt, the witnesses said.

Israeli troops have repeatedly entered Palestinian towns and villages in the current fighting, but Thursday marked the first time large contingents of soldiers entered the camps, where militants have taken refuge amid densely packed houses that line narrow streets, making them inaccessible to Israeli tanks and other armored vehicles.

Peace efforts hindered

The fighting came just hours after Saudi Arabia presented its new peace initiative at the United Nations. 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.

At the United Nations, the deputy Palestinian observer said the Israeli attacks on refugee camps threaten "to lead to a massacre."

Marwan Jilani said the storming of the camps were part of the "escalation of terror being waged against the Palestinian people."

But the daily bloodletting has undermined repeated international attempts to arrange a cease-fire, and the scope of the Israeli action suggested Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government was intent on delivering a major blow to Palestinian militants.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Bush administration respected Israel's right to defend itself, but was "especially concerned" about the move on the refugee camps. "Every effort should be made to avoid harm to civilians," he said.

Palestinian gunmen had boasted that Israel would not dare send soldiers into the camps for fear the troops would take heavy casualties.

The military said the Balata and Jenin refugee camps were strongholds of Palestinian militants, and Thursday's operation was intended to show "there is no refuge for terror."

Israeli security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Balata was targeted because four recent Palestinian attacks have been directed by leaders of the Al Aqsa Brigades militia in the camp, which is also believed to hold a huge cache of weapons.

Nasser Awais, a leader of the Al Aqsa Brigades, which is linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, was holed up in the camp along with hundreds of militants. Speaking by telephone as the Israeli assault began, Awais said "Israeli troops will not enter the camp except over our dead bodies."

Ahmed Abdel Rahman, an adviser to Arafat, 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."

Israel says many Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen have come from Nablus and Jenin, and from the refugee camps in particular. And Israeli officials -- as well as some Palestinians -- have said the Palestinian Authority has only limited control over Balata.

"We are interested in one thing only, to stop and disrupt this wave of suicide attacks," Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said. He declined to say how long the operation would last, but added, "we don't intend to stay there. We intend to go in and get out."

Thursday's clashes raised the total number of deaths on the Palestinian side to 1,010. On the Israeli side, 288 people have been killed since the fighting began in September 2000.

After Palestinian gunmen killed six Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint last week outside the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israeli forces began moving on Nablus.

The army last week commandeered four apartment buildings on the edge of Nablus that overlook the Balata camp.

The Balata incursion began early Thursday as dozens of Israeli tanks surrounded the camp and helicopter gunships flew overhead. Israeli troops fired heavy machine guns from the tanks and helicopters, and at least two Israeli missiles hit Balata.

Palestinian gunmen patrolling the outskirts of the camp alerted each other by mobile phones and began firing at the Israeli forces. Militiamen set off dozens of homemade bombs.

Israeli troops took up positions at a school run by the United Nations -- it was empty at the time -- and afterward moved into nearby houses.

Balata resident Salah Abu Hamis said about 50 Israeli soldiers, their faces painted black, rushed into his three-story house and forced his family into one room.

"They drilled a big hole in the wall to get to the next house. They wanted to avoid being in the alley," he said by telephone.

Five Palestinians -- two gunman, two policeman and a civilian -- and one Israeli soldier were killed in Balata, according to officials from the two sides. More than 85 people were wounded in Balata, most of them gunmen, Palestinian hospital doctors and residents said.

Israel Radio's Arabic language service said civilians could leave the camp until 3 p.m. and some young women and children rushed out.

"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 Jenin, Israeli tanks entered the town from three directions early Thursday and surrounded the refugee camp at the western edge of town, residents said.

Palestinians said six Palestinian policemen and one elderly man 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 police chief's guards and his 24-year-old son, himself a policeman, were killed, witnesses said.

The 27 refugee camps in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip house Palestinians displaced in Mideast wars dating to Israel's founding in 1948. Though officially designated as refugee camps, most are made up of concrete houses and apartment buildings that have gone up over a period of decades.