Fierce fighting continues to rage in the West Bank this evening as Israel pushes ahead with its military offensive, undaunted by a US call for a withdrawal of its armour and troops from Palestinian areas.
Speaking after a mini-summit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at his ranch in Texas, President George W Bush has once again urged Israel to withdraw "without delay" from Palestinian territory.
Israel "must halt incursions in the Palestinan controlled areas and begin to withdraw without delay from the areas it has occupied," Bush said in a joint press conference with Mr Blair.
"I expect [Israel] to heed the call from their friends in the United States" as well as "the leadership" of Great Britain, Bush said. He added that the Palestinian leadership had to order an "immediate crackdown" on terrorist networks.
Mr Blair said he expected Israel to take note of the President's demand for its withdrawal. "I believe that Israel will heed the words of President Bush and will do so knowing he speaks as a friend of Israel," he said.
Despite the calls for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, soldiers and gunmen continued to battle alley by alley in the crowded Jenin refugee camp, where heavy casualties were reported.
A 10-year-old Palestinian girl has died of her wounds after being shot by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, medical sources said.
The Israeli army said at least 14 Palestinians and seven Israeli soldiers had been killed in the last 48 hours in Jenin in what a spokesman called very intense fighting . A Palestinian fighter told Reuters he had counted 30 dead bodies in the camp. The accounts could not be independently confirmed because Israeli authorities had declared the camp off-limits to journalists. Sami Mshasha, a spokesman for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, told Reuters his field reports indicated there had been tens of camp residents killed, scores injured and an unidentified number of shelters destroyed. The Palestinian Authority called for international intervention to stop what it called Israeli massacres in the Jenin camp, a key stronghold of Palestinian militants. The Israeli army dismissed the claim as propaganda. At least 17 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were reported killed elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza strip today, Palestinian or Israeli sources said, in addition to 25 reported dead on Friday, one of the heaviest daily death tolls so far in the eight-day-old Israeli offensive.