NABIL SALEH CHECKPOINT, West Bank - Hundreds of Israeli troops, backed up by tanks, have invaded a West Bank village, burst into houses, and killed at least six people as the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, ignored appeals from US President Bush for him to pull back his army.
As night
fell, many hours after the start of the raid, the Israeli armed forces were still refusing to allow foreign correspondents to enter the area by, blocking their efforts to check Palestinian claims that corpses were lying in nearby olive orchards.
The Palestinian cabinet issued a statement charging Israel with an "ugly massacre", saying that nine people had been killed and dozens wounded in the attack, which Israeli officials said was aimed at tracking down the guerrilla cell behind the assassination last week of one of its government ministers.
The assault against Beit Rima, a Muslim village of 4,000 people, came after President Bush had repeated America's demand that Israel withdraw its forces after invading six West Bank towns in the army's largest seizure of Palestinian areas since the start of the intifada.
Crucially, though, Mr Bush softened the language - talking of a withdrawal only as "quickly as possible" while his own State Department had been demanding an "immediate" pull-out.
- INDEPENDENT
