WEST BANK (voa) – Israel’s military operation in the West Bank shows no signs of stopping, with troops and tanks moving into several more Palestinian villages Saturday.
The Israeli army says it arrested 40 suspected militants in the sweep of areas around Ramallah, Jenin and Nablus. Israel has arrested more than four-thousand Palestinians since beginning its campaign March 29.
In Bethlehem, where Palestinian gunmen remain under siege inside the Church of the Nativity, witnesses say Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian policeman who had come out of the church. The Israeli army says its soldiers did not fire on the church complex, but did not comment further.
Earlier, Christian leaders in Jerusalem sent U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell a plan to end the 12-day standoff. They are calling for a three-day truce to allow Israeli forces to withdraw from the area. Then, the Palestinian Authority would be asked to confiscate the weapons of around 200 Palestinians who have taken refuge in the church. Mr. Powell and Israel have yet to comment on the proposal.
The Church of the Nativity is built at the place where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born.
Israel’s Supreme Court has issued an order blocking the Israeli military from burying the bodies of Palestinians from the Jenin refugee camp, amid controversy over the number of people killed. The camp was the site of ferocious battles between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen last week.
The army had said it would begin burying the bodies far from Jenin, in the Jordan Valley. But the Israeli Supreme Court blocked the action after Israeli Arab lawmakers filed a petition.
Israel says it lost 23 soldiers in the battle for Jenin, but the two sides have sharply differing estimates about how many Palestinians died. Israel says between 100 and 200 Palestinians were killed during fighting in Jenin; Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erakat says the death toll was 500.
Israel launched its offensive into the West Bank last month after a series of suicide bombings that killed more than 40 Israelis. Israel says the operation is aimed at destroying the infrastructure of Palestinian terrorist groups. Palestinians contend that Israel intends to destroy the Palestinian Authority.
