Israel pulls out of Jenin camp; fighting continues

A Palestinian family looks at Israeli army soldiers before the soldiers enter the family home at the Balata refugee camp, in the West Bank town of Nablus, early Saturday.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The Israeli army said it had pulled out of one West Bank refugee camp after what it termed an anti-terrorist sweep, but fighting continued Saturday in a second camp.

Israel Defense Forces said the "initial phase" of its operations in the Jenin refugee camp was successful and that it had withdrawn its troops to the outskirts of town. Palestinian security sources also reported that Israeli tanks remained at the entrance to the camp.

Twenty-two armed Palestinians were killed during the two-day operation in the Jenin camp, the IDF said, and dozens were wounded. Additionally, the IDF reported arrests of people wanted for questioning. One IDF soldier was also killed in the fighting as the Israeli troops took over the crowded camp.

The Israeli incursion into the camps also has resulted in the deaths of several civilians who got caught up in the fighting. Among those was a 10-year-old girl, who was shot dead Friday as she was standing at the window in her house, Palestinian sources said.

Israeli troops and tanks began the West Bank operation Thursday in the Jenin and Balata refugee camps "to stop terrorists and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure." The IDF says the camps have acted as staging areas for suicide bombings and others attacks on Israeli checkpoints and settlements that have surged in recent weeks.

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The Palestinian Authority criticized the incursions, saying the Palestinian people have "the right to resistance" and to defend their land. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called Friday for rapid international action "before the region explodes."

Fighting in the Balata camp, near Nablus, continued on Saturday. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said 25 Palestinians have died in Balata since the incursion began on Thursday. Two of them died on Saturday -- one was killed in fighting and the other died of wounds received earlier, the Red Crescent said.

One Israeli soldier has died in the fighting in the Balata camps.

The IDF reported Saturday that during the sweep into Balata soldiers had found one house containing equipment for preparing bombs, a second dwelling that contained bombs prepared for detonation and a Qassam "rocket factory" that held one ready-to-launch rocket and several other completed rockets.

In a separate incident, Hamas said Israeli forces shot and killed a member of the group's militant wing as he was planting explosives near the soldiers in northern Gaza late Friday.

Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization, has been named by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization. The group's military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and well as attacks against the Israeli military.

U.S., U.N. call for restraint

IDF forces began their assault on the Jenin camp Thursday but did not enter it until Friday.

The operations followed a Wednesday suicide bombing carried out by a Palestinian woman in which she and two other Palestinians died and three Israeli soldiers were injured. Israeli media reported she was a resident of the Balata refugee camps.

Wednesday's was the latest in a series of attacks at Israeli checkpoints. The Israeli military has responded with punishing attacks on the Palestinian infrastructure, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced last Thursday that Israel will create buffer zones intended to provide security.

The United States and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan are urging both sides to use restraint. "I call on the IDF to withdraw from these camps immediately, and I implore both sides to refrain from further actions which may endanger yet more civilian lives," Annan said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States has been in contact with Israel regarding the refugee camp incursions and has urged "utmost restraint to avoid harm to civilians."

Saudi peace plan discussed

As violence continued, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told The Washington Times that a Middle East peace proposal floated by Saudi Arabia was not new and unlikely to work.

Mubarak was scheduled to arrive in Washington on Sunday and is expected to discuss the Middle East crisis with President Bush.

Under the Saudi proposal, the Arab world would make peace with Israel in an exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from territories it occupied during the 1967 Six-Day War.

CIA Director George Tenet and a senior State Department official talked Thursday with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah about the peace initiative, U.S. officials said.