Friday was the bloodiest day of fighting since the beginning of the week-old Israeli military offensive in the West Bank.
At least 40 Palestinians, including a top Hamas activist, died Friday and early Saturday as gunmen and Israeli forces fought in Nablus, Tubas and Jenin.
At least three Israeli soldiers also died. Twelve soldiers were injured Friday in fighting in the West Bank. Ten soldiers were wounded in Jenin gunfights, with two soldiers in moderate condition. Two additional soldiers were seriously injured overnight in Nablus.
The commander of the Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Jenin said Saturday morning that the fighting in this city was fiercer that previous times the Israeli army had entered the city, and that the Palestinians there had very high motivation. He added that the city was in the army's hands, and that the refugee camp soon would be.
Four Palestinians were gunned down early Saturday at the Askar refugee camp near Nablus as they were placing explosives on the road to the camp, the Israeli military said.
Israeli forces entered the village of Yata, near the West Bank city of Hebron, overnight Friday. Two Palestinians were killed and seven were injured.
In what appears to be a failed suicide bombing attack, the leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, Nasser Awais, died when explosives strapped to his body went off prematurely in Nablus, said Abu Mujahed, a spokesman of the group linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
A 22-year-old man, Jamil Arboudi, blew himself up in a suicide attack that injured or killed four Israeli troops in Nablus, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade said.
In Bethlehem, the Israeli army retrieved the bodies of five men, apparently killed by fellow Palestinians as suspected informers for Israel.
At the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, one of Christianity's holiest sites, a standoff between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen inside continued into a fourth day. Four of about 60 priests trapped in the church came out Friday and left Bethlehem under Israeli escort, the Israeli army said.
In Tubas, Hamas confirmed six of its members, including Qeis Adwan, head of its military wing in the north of the West Bank, were killed when the house they were in was bombarded by Israeli tanks and helicopters. "Our retaliation will be very harsh and cruel according to the measure of the crime," Sheikh Jamal Abu al-Heija, a Hamas political official in Jenin, told Reuters. After this incident, masked Palestinian gunmen shot dead three men suspected of collaborating with Israeli forces in Tubas, witnesses said.
In a seperate incident Friday, four Israelis were injured in the settlement of Rafiah Yam, in the Gaza Strip, as two armed Palestinians opened fire and threw grenades at the settlement. The two were killed in the ensuing gunfight. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
