Palestinians: 17 dead as troops enter Gaza camp

Sharon eases travel restrictions on Arafat

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- In one of the largest offensives against what Israel called "terrorist infrastructures," hundreds of soldiers and dozens of tanks moved into a Palestinian nationalist stronghold in Gaza late Monday while other forces unleashed a punishing attack in the West Bank.

One senior officer with the Israel Defense Forces said the operation in the West Bank town of Ramallah was carried out against "the center of terrorism ... because we couldn't stand it any more."

The most lethal fighting took place in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza where 17 Palestinians were killed and 80 others wounded, including 10 seriously, the Palestine Red Crescent said. Another Palestinian was killed in an incident in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. The Red Crescent also said two Palestinians were killed in Ramallah.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat described the Jabalya incursion as a "bloodbath." The Jabalya camp -- the biggest in the territories -- is where the first intifada began, in 1987.

"The army is currently operating against terrorists and terrorist infrastructures in the Gaza Strip. These actions are conducted to stop massacres by terrorists and suicide bombers," an Israeli army spokesman said. It was not immediately known if Israel suffered any casualties in the fighting.

One Israeli military source said the operation was in response to the "threat of Qassam" rocket attacks. This source said two Palestinian men were seen firing six or seven of the crude rockets toward the settlement of Netzarim as tanks and soldiers went into the camp.

"The two men were shot dead and our soldiers found Kalashnikov rifles and hand grenades next to the bodies," he said.

VIDEO CNN's Ben Wedeman reports on the new order within a Palestinian refugee camp (March 11) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   MORE STORIES • TIME.com: Why Sharon is talking about talks  • Powell backs sending U.S. monitors to Mideast    EXTRA INFORMATION In-Depth: Mideast Struggle for Peace

He said the Israeli troops met "heavy resistance" from Palestinian gunmen in the refugee camp, and that IDF soldiers were under orders to "shoot only at gunmen. They were ordered to be very precise."

The source said soldiers were searching the camp for Qassam rocket-making factories and that one had been "hit from the air" during the operation.

Palestinian security sources said the firefight broke out soon after the Israeli troops entered the camp late Monday, escorted by at least 50 tanks. Hospital sources reported seeing people flee the camp on foot and by car, and that ambulances were having trouble reaching the wounded because of the tanks.

"There were bullets flying everywhere," one witness said.

In central Gaza on Tuesday, Israeli military sources said IDF had gone into the Palestinian village of Wadi al Salka -- near the Gush Katif settlement block -- and called all males, ages 16 to 60, to come out of their houses. According to the same sources, more than 100 Palestinians were being questioned.

In Ramallah, fierce fighting broke out in the El Amari refugee camp after at least 10 Israeli tanks began firing on targets. Helicopters circled overhead, and heavy gunfire and shelling could be heard throughout the town. The fighting began late Monday and still raged early Tuesday.

The Red Crescent put the toll at two dead and four wounded in Ramallah.

In other violence, one Israeli was killed and another injured in a West Bank shooting north of Ramallah, Israeli medical sources said. They were working on a road when they came under fire, the sources said.

A 16-year-old Israeli settler was stabbed by a Palestinian in Hebron, Israeli military and medical sources said, and has been transferred to the hospital in serious condition.

The senior IDF officer said Israel had no choice but to strike Ramallah.

"We couldn't stand it any more. Ramallah produces waves of suicide bombers and gunmen," he said. "We called on the Palestinian Authority to act, but they showed no authority."

He said the IDF took a "few key points" in Ramallah in order to carry out search-and-find operations for terrorists and explosives laboratories.

"The main purpose is to put a wall between terrorists and Israeli citizens. We must finish our mission and that may take time," he said. "It is the main area of terrorism so we did not have any choice."

Loudspeakers could be heard asking Palestinians ranging in age from 16 to 60 to come out of their homes for questioning.

At one point, the hotel where journalists are staying came under fire by Israeli troops.

Shots were fired into Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah, but he was not injured in the fighting, Palestinian sources said, but a member of the Palestinian security force was wounded.

The late-night fighting was the most intense of several Israeli operations Monday in the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli forces rounded up 1,100 Palestinians for questioning in those earlier campaigns that left six Palestinians dead.

Over the weekend, two Palestinian terror attacks killed 13 Israelis, including an infant, and wounded more than 80 others.

The intensifying military activity came even as Israel made diplomatic gestures to reach out to Palestinian leaders and as the United States prepared to send its Mideast envoy, Gen. Anthony Zinni, to the region. Zinni is expected to press for a cease-fire when he arrives Thursday. (Full story)

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lifted a ban on Arafat that had prevented him from traveling outside Ramallah since early December.

Despite some pressure from the United States, however, Sharon did not say whether Arafat could attend an Arab League summit later this month in Beirut, Lebanon, where a Saudi Arabian peace proposal likely will be discussed.

Palestinian negotiator Erakat criticized the move as inadequate because the decision still confines Arafat to the Palestinian territories.

A statement from Sharon's office said the travel ban was eased because Arafat had met Israel's demand to arrest six suspects in the October assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi.

The statement said Israel "will see itself free to decide on the appropriate steps" if those suspects or Fuad Shubaki -- a Palestinian official accused of involvement in an intercepted arms shipment -- are released.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Ahmad Qurei, popularly known as Abu Ala, met Monday to discuss the violence.

"I am in favor of talking with the Palestinians," Peres said on Army Radio. "I think the [aerial] bombings should be stopped. They do us more harm than good."

Over the weekend, Sharon gave up on his call for seven days of calm before entering into negotiations with Palestinians. A spokesman quoted Sharon as saying he was ready for "immediate discussions to implement the Tenet plan."

The plan put forth by CIA Director George Tenet last year calls for a cease-fire and security cooperation between the sides. (Tenet plan)

The Tenet plan is the first step toward implementation of the Mitchell plan, named for former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, who headed a commission that studied the Mideast conflict. Besides a cease-fire, it calls for a freeze on Jewish settlement construction and other conditions for the resumption of peace talks. (Mitchell plan)

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who appeared Monday at a news conference in London with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, said Britain "will do everything we possibly can to assist" the United States in its efforts to jump-start the peace process.

"We want to see a resolution of the Middle East peace process -- that is vitally important," Blair said. "It's important not just in terms of the stability of the region, it's important in terms of sheer humanity when we see what his happening there with the carnage and the death and the terror."

Cheney, making his first stop on a 12-nation trip, said "effective policies" are needed for the Middle East that "some way establish peace between Israel and the Palestinians." Cheney was scheduled to arrive in Jordan Tuesday.