Heavy gun battles between the IDF and armed Palestinian gunmen continued Monday in the Jenin refugee camp and in the casbah marketplace in Nablus. By early afternoon, the army took control of most of the casbah, and dozens of armed gunmen surrendered there. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and four others wounded, one moderately, in Jenin, as troops closed in on a small area of the camp where terrorists were barricaded.

In the Jenin camp, some 180 armed Palestinians surrendered to IDF troops overnight, and officers involved in the fighting suggested that the IDF could complete its conquest of the camp within hours. Palestinian sources claimed that the Palestinians who turned themselves in were civilian residents, and that the armed men were still holed up inside, ynet reported. The camp's Hamas leader said the gunmen would fight until the end, Israel Radio reported.

IDF helicopters fired scores of rockets at houses in which the armed men had taken refuge. Army bulldozers reportedly demolished a number of homes, but large engineering tools reportedly had difficulties maneuvering on the camp's narrow alleyways. Palestinian sources claimed that an unknown number of civilians were killed when one house was blown up by the army.

Loudspeakers called on any remaining civilians to leave their homes and gather in the center of the camp. Residents reportedly ignored the orders and helicopters launched additional rockets, Palestinian sources said.

During the course of the battles in Jenin, IDF soldiers encountered a huge number of explosive devices. During the first four days of fighting in the camp and in Nablus, some 5 tons of explosives were deployed against Israeli troops, Yediot Aharonot reported. Army sources said a number of the houses in Jenin and Nablus had been booby-trapped against Israeli troops.

"During the present operations, the terrorists in Jenin prepared themselves well," commented Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz on Sunday. "On the main access road into the camp, four cars laden with explosives were deployed, and in the city itself they planted some 100 explosive charges."

On Sunday, a terrorist attempted to detonate an explosive belt near Israeli soldiers, but ended up killing himself and two other Palestinians. The army is considering ceasing its practice of calling on terrorists to surrender, after terrorists armed with explosive devices hid themselves among Palestinians who had surrendered in Jenin.

Ashraf Abu Hija, a leading member of the Hamas's Izzadin al-Qassam military wing, was killed during gunfire exchanges in the camp. Seven Israeli soldiers were wounded in clashes in the camp on Sunday.

The fighting in the Jenin camp has been the fiercest of all battles in Operation Defensive Wall so far. Seven Israeli soldiers were killed there in the first few days of the operation, and many soldiers were injured. The Palestinians suffered an unknown number of losses, estimated at anywhere between 30 and 100. Palestinian claims that most of their dead were unarmed civilians were proven incorrect. IDF officers said most civilians had fled the camp, or had been forced out of their homes by gunpoint as terrorists looked for cover.

"We have done everything to prevent harming innocent civilians, especially women and children," an army officer who participated in the fighting told Maariv. "Palestinian claims of a 'massacre' are nonsense, part of their disinformation campaign."

Army officers said there were a number of reasons for the fierce fighting in Jenin. The terrorists had one week after the suicide bombing attack in Netanya's Park Hotel on Passover eve to prepare for an IDF incursion into the camp. Also, IDF operations in surrounding villages had left the terrorists nowhere to flee. The army's incursion into the Jenin camp is its third such operation there in recent weeks, and the Palestinians reportedly learned how the soldiers operated. Also, fearing that if caught they would spend the rest of their lives in Israeli jails, many gunmen determined that they had nothing to lose and would fight until the very end, Maariv reported.

Maariv added that another delay in the conquest of the Jenin camp was due to the fact that the operation was conducted in the beginning by units of reservists. Though the reservists arrived with high motivation, they went into combat with little preparation, and their actions were not entirely efficient, the paper said.

IDF controls most of casbah in Nablus
Paratrooper Brigade commander Col. Aviv Kochavi said the IDF had taken control over most of the casbah in Nablus. "The combat here is in very dense urban conditions of an old city - narrow alleys with stone houses close together," he told Army Radio. "Add on to this the large amount of bombs and the terrorists who are shooting from every corner, and you have a battle which is very complicated."

Six armed Palestinians were killed in fighting in Nablus Monday morning. Dozens of gunmen were reportedly surrendering to IDF troops in the afternoon hours.

Earlier Monday morning a Fatah fighter in Nablus told ynet that IDF forces were advancing deep into the casbah. "The army fires rockets every few minutes at houses in which we are taking cover," the fighter said. "Dozens of rockets are falling on us, and we can't stand up to this. But we will not surrender, even though there is not much we can do."

Kochavi said soldiers killed at least 30 Palestinians in the casbah. Palestinian sources confirmed that Ahmed Tabouk, 38, a Fatah military leader wanted by Israel, was among the dead. Two IDF soldiers were wounded, one moderately, in clashes in Nablus on Sunday.

The army said that many weapons were captured and at least two weapons manufacturing plants and bomb factories were discovered in the casbah. Dozens of Palestinians suspected of involvement in terrorist activities were arrested.

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