Battle for survival, warns Sharon

HAIFA - In one of the bloodiest days of 18 months of conflict, a suicide bomber struck in northern Israel, 13 soldiers were killed in a West Bank ambush and the Israeli military operation in Jenin claimed dozens of Palestinian lives.

Senior Israeli political sources predicted the explosion that killed eight people on a bus from Haifa to Jerusalem would harden Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's resolve to continue the sweep for militants in Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps.

"The Palestinian Authority seems to have an unquenched thirst for terror," said David Baker, an official in Sharon's office, placing overall responsibility on Yasser Arafat, besieged by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Palestinian cabinet minister Hassan Asfour said: "Sharon is to blame. Providing security for the Israeli people can only come through security for Palestinian civilians and not through killing and destruction of refugee camps."

The bus blast, which police said was a suicide bombing, broke a nine-day lull in suicide bombings that coincided with the West Bank operation, which has killed at least 200 Palestinians.

Besides the bomber and the eight others police said were killed on the bus, at least 12 people were wounded.

The attack came hours after 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank.

In the deadliest strike against Israeli troops in 18 months, the reservists were caught up in an ambush that unfolded with split-second precision as a booby trap exploded, a suicide bomber blew himself up and gunmen shot from rooftops.

After the attack on the soldiers in Jenin, Sharon pledged to press ahead with the military campaign, saying: "It is a battle we will continue to pursue according to the Government's decision, until we ... dismantle the terrorist infrastructure."

The Palestinian death toll from fierce battles in the narrow alleyways of the Jenin refugee camp was expected to be high.

Witnesses said many bodies lay in the streets after days of house-to-house fighting and Israeli bombardment. Palestinian officials estimated more than 100 people have been killed.

In developments yesterday:

* Israeli forces took control of another West Bank village south of Hebron, sending tanks and troops into Al-Samur in a Palestinian self-rule area, triggering exchanges of fire.

* Israeli F-16 fighter planes and Apache helicopters bombarded the West Bank town of Nablus in the most ferocious assault since the arrival of Israeli tanks in Nablus a week ago.

* Israeli troops launched several grenades near the besieged Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where about 200 Palestinian fighters have sought refuge. It was not immediately clear where the grenades landed, or what damage, if any, they did in and around the church, which stands over the spot where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born.

Israel's attack on a refugee camp in Nablus, the West Bank's biggest city, was fierce.

Dozens of missiles were fired from helicopters and the Army pounded the area with artillery and raked it with heavy machinegun fire.

Fighting also continued in a refugee camp next to the northern city of Jenin, where militants who have pledged to die rather than surrender have been battling Israeli troops in a warren of narrow alleyways.

Troops were firing mortars into the camp and bulldozers were demolishing homes, Israel Radio reported.

Sharon pledged that the campaign - dubbed "Operation Defensive Shield" - would continue.

"This is a battle for survival of the Jewish people, for survival of the state of Israel," Sharon said on Israel TV.

Troops controlled Nablus, Bethlehem, Jenin, Ramallah and several villages.

At least 124 Palestinians and 25 Israeli soldiers have been killed during the offensive, according to Palestinian medics and the Israeli Army. The toll was expected to rise amid reports of dead Palestinians still not evacuated from areas of battle, especially in the Jenin camp.

The Army says it has detained 1600 Palestinians - of whom 84 were wanted suspects - and seized more than 1300 assault rifles, 387 sniper rifles, 49 anti-tank grenades, 256 machineguns, 58 bombs and 30kg of explosives. It also says it found 11 explosives laboratories.

Violence flared between Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas and Israeli troops along the border, raising fears of a widening of the conflict between Israel and its Arab foes.

A Reuters correspondent said hostilities erupted after Hizbollah guerrillas fired rockets and mortar rounds on three Israeli military positions in the contested Shebaa Farms area near the border between Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

He said the guerrillas tried to take over an Israeli outpost on Rweisat al-Alam hill.

Israeli warplanes responded by pounding Hizbollah targets but there were no immediate reports of casualties, he said.

Security sources and witnesses said several rockets fired by Hizbollah directly hit an Israeli radar post in Mt Hermon on the foothills of the Golan Heights.

Smoke was seen rising over the Israeli positions, the correspondent said.

The Syrian and Iranian-backed Muslim group has launched strikes almost daily since Israel began incursions into Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank 12 days ago.

The attacks have raised speculation that Hizbollah, which has often hinted that it would intervene militarily to back an 18-month Palestinian uprising, was trying to open another front.

The United States has expressed "grave concern" over the escalation and the United Nations has asked the Lebanese authorities to stop the clashes.

The Lebanese border has been under the control of Hizbollah since Israel pulled out its troops in May 2000, ending a 22-year occupation.

The Lebanese Army has refused to deploy along the border area, saying any security arrangements should be part of a final peace agreement between Lebanon, its ally Syria and Israel.

A rocket was fired into northern Israel yesterday from an area on the Lebanese border under Hizbollah control, Lebanese security sources said. Witnesses said Israeli jets and helicopters flew deep into Lebanese skies about the same time.

Hizbollah, which fought a guerrilla campaign that helped end Israel's occupation of south Lebanon, has vowed to drive Israel from the Shebaa Farms and support the Palestinian Intifada.

Lebanon and Syria say the Shebaa Farms is still-occupied Lebanese land but the United Nations considers the area Syrian land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

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