Middle East Fighting Rages as Sharon Defies Bush

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 08, 2002

Middle East Fighting Rages as Sharon Defies Bush

The Israeli army pounded the West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin Sunday, battling gunmen house to house, in defiance of U.S. calls to end an offensive which has killed at least 200 Palestinians.

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The Israeli army pounded the West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin Sunday, battling gunmen house to house, in defiance of U.S. calls to end an offensive which has killed at least 200 Palestinians.

The Israeli government hailed the West Bank sweep, launched after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings, as a success. But a cabinet statement ignored President Bush's pressure to withdraw the troops from Palestinian cities "without delay."

A senior army officer said the goal of crushing what Israel calls a Palestinian "terrorist infrastructure" could not be achieved by the end of the week, when Secretary of State Colin Powell will visit in pursuit of a cease-fire.

Israel had been widely expected to continue its 10-day-old offensive until Powell arrived, and Palestinians feared this meant intensified military assaults over the next few days.

The army, whose casualties are also mounting, said it had killed more than 30 armed Palestinians in close combat since Friday in Nablus. Palestinian witnesses and medics said 12 Palestinians died in fighting Sunday as Israeli troops kept shelling the historic casbah (market) district of Nablus.

Palestinians say the offensive, in which their president Yasser Arafat has been surrounded in his West Bank headquarters, is designed to permanently reoccupy their cities and topple his Palestinian Authority.

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