Israel pressed its furious West Bank offensive today, defying US pressure for a withdrawal and vowing to speed a military drive it said had left some 200 Palestinians dead.
After the bloodiest day of fighting in 18 months, Israeli troops met continued stiff resistance in the city of Nablus, where the army said more than 30 Palestinian fighters died since Friday, and the town of Jenin.
Thirty tanks and armoured vehicles also entered the hilltop village of Beit Rima near Ramallah on the central West Bank, with troops going house to house searching for militants, Palestinian security sources said today.
Raising fears of a regional war, Lebanon's radical Shiite Hezbollah movement fired today across the border on Israeli positions, Lebanese police and Hezbollah members said.
Israeli warplanes bombed south Lebanon yesterday after a Hezbollah attack.
Fighting has escalated on Israel's northern front, with regular clashes with Hezbollah since the start of the military operation in the West Bank.
Israel's army chief General Shaul Mofaz told the cabinet today his soldiers had killed 200 Palestinians and wounded 1,500 others since the offensive was launched March 29th, a government source said.
The source quoted the general as saying 13 Israeli troops had died and 143 were wounded during Operation Defensive Wall in which some 1,200 Palestinians were rounded up, including about 100 wanted for anti-Israeli attacks.
Thirteen new Palestinian deaths were reported today as the blitz entered its 10th day despite Washington's growing insistence Israel withdraw "without delay" ahead of a peace mission by Secretary of State General Colin Powell.
But Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon, in a late-night phone call with President George W. Bush, made it clear he would not call off the operation until its objective of crushing the Palestinian militants was achieved.
"Israel will do all it can to bring a quick end to Operation Defensive Wall," a government statement quoted Mr Sharon as telling President Bush. "Sharon said he understands the president's concern to finish the operation quickly."
Army spokesman General Ron Kitrey said fighting continued in the Jenin refugee camp, the scene of some of the heaviest fighting. He said the operation could end Sunday but no orders had been given to speed it up.
"We are working methodically and slowly to avoid injuring innocent civilians. We believe that the time is close when we can say that the operation in Jenin has been completed," he said.
Palestinian information minister Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo reported another five deaths in Jenin's battered refugee camp, seen by the Israelis as a haven for militants, bringing the weekend total to 35.
Mr Ron Leshem, a correspondent for the mass circulation Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, was one of the few correspondents to get into the camp and reported scenes of destruction and horror.
"Two bulldozers demolish homes and sometimes bury beneath them those who refused to surrender. Pillars of smoke climb out of the camp," he wrote today.
"Helicopter gunships fire missiles, the tanks fire shells, the machine-guns leave paths of fire and sparks," he said. "On the ground are hundreds of bombs, a few car bombs, dozens of snipers and piles of rubble."
Israeli tanks and helicopters also pressed their attack in Nablus to the south, where many houses and some mosques were destroyed by missile-firing Apache helicopter gunships.
The attacks sent local residents fleeing for refuge while the Israelis blocked ambulances from evacuating many of the wounded.
Israeli military officials said the army had killed more than 30 Palestinian fighters in Nablus since Friday, had rounded up "dozens" of suspected militants and destroyed some bomb-making facilities.
Six Palestinians were reported killed today in Nablus, where Israeli paratroopers fought local forces for control of the Old City and marketplace, Palestinian medical officials said.
In Bethlehem, the Israeli siege of some 200 Palestinian fighters holed up in the Church of the Nativity went into its sixth day with no sign of movement. The Vatican denied yesterday it had presented a plan to end the standoff.
On the southern Gaza Strip, two Palestinian men were killed today in an exchange of fire with Israeli forces close to the Jewish settlement of Morag, Palestinian security officials said.
Analysts have suggested that the Israelis were intent on inflicting maximum damage on the Palestinians before General Powell arrives later this week in a new bid to halt the violence that has claimed some 1,800 lives overall.
At least 50 Palestinians, including five children, and five Israeli soldiers were reported killed yesterday, the highest daily toll since the launch of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in September 2000.
Israeli forces scouring the West Bank have seized a number of top Palestinian security officers in their massive military operation, a Palestinian official in Gaza City said today.
AFP