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Palestinians Kill 13 Israeli Soldiers
By Wael al-Ahmad
4-8-2

JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian ambush killed 13 Israeli soldiers fighting in a West Bank refugee camp Tuesday, dealing the army a blow that could complicate Secretary of State Colin Powell's Middle East peace mission.
 
Soon after the deaths were disclosed, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has been under U.S. pressure to call off a 12-day-old offensive against Palestinian cities in the West Bank, said the operation would continue.
 
Israel announced the deadliest Palestinian attack on its soldiers in 18 months of conflict hours after withdrawing its troops from two West Bank cities following U.S. appeals.
 
The Palestinian death toll from fierce battles in the narrow alleyways of the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank was expected to be high. Witnesses said many corpses lay unretrieved in the streets after days of fighting.
 
President Bush responded to the withdrawal from Tulkarm and Qalqilya by demanding Israeli troops leave all the other West Bank cities they have occupied in the past 12 days.
 
"The president believes all parties still have responsibilities, (he is) still looking for results," a White House spokesman said, adding Israeli should withdraw from Palestinian areas and "do so now."
 
Powell, in Egypt ahead of a visit to Israel later this week, said Sharon had told him by telephone he wanted to end the West Bank sweep for Palestinian militants as soon as possible.
 
But Israel launched a fresh incursion overnight in Dura near the city of Hebron, and Palestinian sources said about 70 people had been detained. Witnesses said troops had also entered the village of Kafr Ra'i near Jenin and shelled a police station.
 
BOOBY-TRAPPED BUILDING
 
Israeli military commentators said Palestinians carried out the ambush by blowing up a booby-trapped building on one group of soldiers, after which gunmen opened fire on a second army unit that came to their rescue.
 
"An army patrol by reserve soldiers was ambushed during operations in the Jenin refugee camp. The ambush included the use of explosive devices detonated against them and gunfire from nearby rooftops," the army said in a statement.
 
"Thirteen soldiers were killed," it said, adding that seven other soldiers were wounded, one of them critically.
 
The toll was the heaviest single blow to the Israeli army since the start of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
 
The deaths of so many soldiers on one day was a shock to Israelis already in a somber mood as they marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, honoring the six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany during World War Two.
 
"This is a difficult day. There was a very tough battle against the terrorist organizations," Sharon said in remarks broadcast on Israeli Channel One television shortly after news of the ambush was released.
 
"It is a battle we will continue to pursue according to the government's decision, until we carry out the government's decision which is to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in order to head to a political process afterward which will hopefully lead to an agreement...for peace," he said.
 
The Jenin refugee camp has been the site of the fiercest fighting in the Israeli offensive, which the government says is intended to root out suicide bombers.
 
Palestinian officials estimate more than 100 Palestinians have been killed inside the camp over the last week. Before the latest ambush, nine Israeli soldiers had been killed inside the camp and neighboring town.
 
POWELL HOPES FOR FULL PULLOUT
 
Powell said he hoped the withdrawal from Qalqilya and Tulkarm was the start of a wider disengagement.
 
"Let us hope that this is not a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but the beginning of a pullback," Powell said in Morocco at the start of his Middle East mission, before flying to Egypt on the next stage of his tour.
 
Powell said in Cairo he intended to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who is penned up in the West Bank city of Ramallah by Israeli forces.
 
The 15-nation European Union said the pullout was "not at all enough" and demanded an immediate cease-fire.
 
Oil prices, which had soared Monday after Iraq announced a one-month halt to oil supplies to protest at Israel's offensive, fell on news of the partial withdrawal.
 
Israeli forces gave no indication when they would quit the other cities they attacked after a spate of suicide bombings.
 
Even Tulkarm and Qalqilya were kept cut off from the outside world after Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers left under cover of darkness. The Israeli Defense Ministry said a blockade around the two cities would be tightened.
 
In Tulkarm, Israeli forces blew up the local Palestinian intelligence headquarters before getting into their vehicles and leaving under heavy covering fire, witnesses said.
 
The Palestinians dismissed the limited withdrawal.
 
"This is a new Israeli lie because, as they pulled back, they tightened the siege on the two cities and entered new areas," Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said.
 
"If this lie will pass with the Americans, this means their conspiracy is continuing because they know that what happened is a maneuver," he told Reuters.
 
At least 1,241 Palestinians and 422 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising began after talks on a final peace settlement stalled. The army says it has killed at least 200 Palestinians during the current campaign.


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