[Guardian (UK) - 5/17/02] Israeli troops entered the Palestinian town of Jenin and its devastated refugee camp early today in an operation aimed at finding militants who had eluded capture during last month's siege, army officials said.
Witnesses reported exchanges of fire between the Israelis and Palestinian gunmen as troops approached Jenin at 3.30 am (00.30 GMT).
An Israeli army spokesman said that the troops had not come under heavy fire and would leave the refugee camp once they had arrested suspected militants.
Soldiers surrounded the home of the local leader of the militant Islamic group Hamas, Jamal Abu Alhija, and ordered his family to leave the building. The local Hamas leader was not at home. His family said they did not know where he was.
Israeli troops set fire to the house.
Troops surrounded other buildings in Jenin as they hunted suspected militants.
Tanks also entered the West Bank city of Nablus, but withdrew after a few hours, Palestinian witnesses said.
In other developments, Palestinian officials said that the Central Elections Committee would meet this weekend to begin preparations for general elections.
One of Yasser Arafat's senior advisers, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, said that the Palestinian leader had decided to hold presidential and parliamentary elections within six months as part of a reform package.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man who tried to enter the Jewish settlement of Dugit near Gaza.
The Israeli incursion into Jenin followed the withdrawal of its forces from the town last week after a six-week military offensive aimed at targeting militants in the Palestinian towns of the West Bank.
The operation was launched on March 29 after a string of Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel.
The Jenin refugee camp was the scene of the heaviest fighting of the Israeli offensive. More than 50 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting there on April 3-11.
Soldiers detained hundreds of young men in the camp for interrogation. Some remain in custody, though most have since been released.
Israeli bulldozers flattened buildings where militants had been hiding, leaving a wasteland in the middle of the camp, which is home to around 15,000 Palestinians.
Palestinian officials accused Israeli troops of killing hundreds of people, including civilians, during the fighting. Israel has dismissed the claims as wild exaggeration, while human rights groups have said that there is no evidence of a massacre in the camp.
Israel was widely expected to launch attacks against Palestinian targets in the Gaza Strip after a devastating suicide bomb attack inside Israel last week.
The Ha'aretz newspaper quoted Israel's deputy chief of staff yesterday as saying that an incursion into the Gaza Strip remained likely.
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[posted 5/17/02]
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