An Israeli field commander
said on today his troops had killed more than 30 armed Palestinians in fierce house-to-house fighting in the West Bank city of Nablus over the past 48 hours.
"There are constant battles - fighting in alleyways, from house to house," Colonel Aviv Cochavi, commander of Israel's Paratroop Brigade, told Reutersby telephone.
"More than 30 terrorists - armed people - have been killed in the past 48 hours," he said about the fighting in the narrow casbah of Nablus. "Two Israeli soldiers were wounded."
Israeli paratroops moved into Nablus as part of a 10-day-old offensive in Palestinian cities and villages with the declared aim of rooting out militants after a wave of suicide bombings in Israel.
Israel's army chief General Shaul Mofaz estimated today his soldiers have killed 200 Palestinians since the March 29 launch of an offensive against West Bank cities, a government source said.
AFP&