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* Palestinians Gallantly Resist Occupation Army; * 12 Palestinians & an Israeli Officer Killed Overnight; * Siege at Church of Nativity Continues; * Israeli-Lebanese Border Remains Tense. ____
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES, JERUSALEM, WORLD CAPITALS (Islamweb & News Agencies)- On the seventh day of its unjust criminal war against the Palestinian Aqssa intifadha, uprising, against occupation, Israeli occupation forces kept Palestinian President Yasser Arafat under siege in his ruined headquarters in the city of Ramallah since the offensive began last Friday, and have taken hold of six major Palestinian cities in the West Bank as well as outlying towns and villages.
In five major Palestinian towns under full Israeli control - Ramallah, Qalqiliya, Jenin, Tulkarem and Bethlehem - tanks patrolled streets, enforcing strict curfews that confined hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to their homes. In Ramallah, residents were without water after city officials said Israeli troops destroyed the main pumping station when shelling a Palestinian security compound.(Read photo caption within)
The incursion into Nablus - a city of more than 100,000 people in the northern West Bank - began Wednesday evening. Shellfire thundered as tanks began rolling into the city. Resistance men and Palestinian police were moving in the streets, closing roads with sandbags and planting mines.
A woman was killed in an explosion in Nablus, residents said. Five people were wounded, apparently when shells hit two apartments in downtown Nablus. Israeli occupation forces, backed by attack helicopters, surrounded the four Palestinian refugee camps next to the city, witnesses said, and there were exchanges of fire.
Fighting was heaviest Wednesday in Jenin, a militant stronghold north of Nablus that Israel has invaded six times before in the past 18 months of fighting.
Dozens of tanks entered Jenin and surrounded the adjacent refugee camp early Wednesday. Helicopters and tanks fired machine guns at Resistance men who hurled grenades and fired from assault rifles. Five people, including a Resistance leader, a nurse and a 13-year-old boy, were killed in the fighting. An Israeli officer was also killed.
STANDOFF AT CHURCH OF NATIVITY CONTINUES
In Bethlehem, just south of Jerusalem, Israeli and Palestinian officials failed to resolve a standoff at the Church of the Nativity, built over the site where tradition says Jesus was born and one of Christianity's major shrines.
About 300 Palestinians, nearly all of them armed, have been holed up in the shrine since Tuesday, running from Israeli occupation forces after hours of heavy gun battles near the church and adjacent Manger Square.
Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel did not intend to break into the church, but army officials said those inside would not be allowed to go free. Five Italian journalists and an Armenian colleague, who had been trapped in the church compound by the fighting, were evacuated Wednesday.
One of the Italian journalists, RAI TV correspondent Marc Innaro, said the Resistance men "were very determined, not nervous, tired also, but not willing at all to surrender."
More than a dozen leaders of Christian churches in the Holy Land, including Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, tried to reach Bethlehem on Wednesday, but were turned away at an Israeli military checkpoint.
RESISTANCE MEN SLIP AWAY FROM ST. MARY'S
Several dozen Palestinians, including some who were armed, also sought sanctuary at St. Mary's, a Roman Catholic convent near Manger Square. At one point Wednesday, a priest and seven nuns emerged from the convent, but by then the Resistance men had slipped out the back. Occupation sources said the bound body of a Palestinian man wearing a camouflage jacket was found in the building, and that the circumstance of his death were not immediately clear.
The bodies of five more Palestinians, including at least two resistance men, were found elsewhere in Bethlehem.
ARAFAT CUT OFF FROM OUTSIDE WORLD
In Ramallah, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafa remained a prisoner of Israel, confined to a few rooms in his former headquarters. Raanan Gissin, a Sharon adviser, said Arafat "won't communicate (with the outside world) until ... we see he is no longer a threat and not instigating terrorism."
Arafat, who is accompanied by about 300 people, including aides, security guards and several dozen foreign volunteers, still has use of a mobile phone. Israel insists it is trying to keep him relatively comfortable.
TENSE ISRAELI-LEBANESE BORDER
Fears were also growing that a second front could open at the northern border with Lebanon as Israel faces a more than 18-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
For a second day, Lebanese Hizbollah Resistane men fired missiles at Israeli army posts near the border on Wednesday, seriously wounding an Israeli soldier and provoking a response by Israeli artillery and warplanes firing rockets.
Israeli fighter jets pounded suspected Hizbollah hide-outs in southern Lebanon on Wednesday after Israeli army outposts were repeatedly attacked in a disputed Chebaa Farms border area.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has warned Hezbollah and Syria, which Israel says controls the guerrillas, that they are "not immune" from Israeli retaliation.
Hezbollah, which fought Israeli troops in southern Lebanon for 18 years until their May 2000 withdrawal, issued its own warning Wednesday to Israel against targeting Lebanon.
PHOTO CAPTION:
An Israeli occupation soldier, left, checks a Palestinian ambulance that was leading trucks carrying supplies in the west bank town of Ramallah on Wednesday, April 3, 2002. The full curfew imposed by Israel is still in effect, banning all movements in Ramallah which remains a closed military zone. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
- Author:
Islamweb & News Agencies - Section:
WORLD HEADLINES
