Under heavy US pressure, Israel withdrew yesterday from two Palestinian towns, but soldiers took over other areas of the West Bank and fought dozens of beleaguered gunmen in a refugee camp.
Thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday when they entered a booby-trapped building during an assault on Palestinian militants in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, an Israeli military source said.
It was the single deadliest incident involving Israeli forces in the past 18 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
At least 124 Palestinians and 24 Israeli soldiers have been killed since March 29, according to Palestinian medics and the Israeli army. The toll is expected to rise.
The heaviest fighting broke out in the Jenin refugee camp, where Israel Radio said soldiers came under attack with dozens of bombs, some containing as much as 100kg of explosives.
In Bethlehem, Israel's siege of the Church of the Nativity, where more than 200 armed Palestinians are holed up, entered its second week, with no sign of a resolution.
However, Israel agreed to ease briefly the confinement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and permit him to meet with four senior advisers ahead of a ceasefire mission by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is due to arrive late tomorrow.
Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer met yesterday with US envoy Anthony Zinni in preparation for Powell's arrival.
Just hours after US President George W. Bush issued a stern call for a withdrawal, Israeli forces pulled out of the West Bank towns of Qalqiliya and Tulkarem, but troops remained in Nablus, Bethlehem, Jenin and Ramallah.
Bush is still looking for results to his demand that Israel withdraw without delay, the White House said yesterday.
"The president believes all parties still have responsibilities, [he is] still looking for results," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters on the Air Force One flight that carried Bush on a day trip to Connecticut.
In the Jenin refugee camp, dozens of Palestinian gunmen remained holed up in a small area in the eastern part of the camp.
Israeli commanders in the area have said several Palestinian gunmen with explosives strapped to their bodies have blown themselves up in suicide attacks. So far, nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in more than a week of fighting in the camp, and estimates by both sides said more than 100 Palestinians have died. An exact count was not possible because Israel barred reporters and medics from the camp.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said dozens of bodies were piled in the streets of the camp and residents were prevented from getting food and water. In a complaint to Ben-Eliezer, the Israeli organization said the military has committed serious human rights violations in the camp, including the demolition of homes with residents still inside. "Those who left their houses to try to get supplies were shot at by the army," the organization wrote.
There was no immediate response from the Defense Ministry.
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