SPEAKING TO cheering soldiers at a post overlooking the battered Jenin refugee camp, Sharon said he explained to President Bush that “we are in the middle of a battle” which, if abandoned prematurely, would only require another round of fighting later on.
       “You can talk all about peace, but you cannot reach peace as long as terror exists. I hope our great friend the United States understands that this is a war of survival for us ... it’s our right to defend our citizens and there should be no pressure put on us not to do that,” Sharon said.
       The prime minister’s statement defied increasingly impatient U.S. demands — to be delivered in person Friday by Secretary of State Colin Powell.

SIEGE TO CONTINUE
       Following the Haifa attack, Israel’s security Cabinet agreed that the offensive in the West Bank should continue. However, late Wednesday the defense ministry announced that troops would pull out of the small villages of Yatta, Qabatya and Samua.
       The military remains in the major West Bank cities of Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin as well as Bethlehem.
       Sharon’s inner circle of ministers also decided Wednesday that Israel’s siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, one of Christianity’s holiest shrines, would not end until more than 200 armed Palestinians holed up there for more than a week have surrendered.
       Earlier Wednesday, an Armenian monk was shot and wounded at the church, which marks the site where Jesus is said to have been born. Palestinian policemen in the church and the Israeli army blamed each other for the shooting.
       The Israeli Cabinet’s decision was made amid signs that fighting was winding down in Jenin and Nablus, scenes of the fiercest fighting during the 13-day old offensive.
       On Wednesday, Israelis began burying the 14 soldiers who were killed a day earlier during clashes in a Jenin refugee camp. 
The Israeli military said that since the start of the offensive, 28 Israeli soldiers have been killed, but has not provided a list of Palestinian casualties. The Palestinian Red Crescent said Tuesday that at least 128 Palestinians have been killed and 337 wounded, but that the toll was expected to rise significantly.
       Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said at least 500 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli offensive was launched on March 29, although he didn’t offer any evidence to support his claim.
       The army said it has detained more than 2,100 Palestinians, including 117 on Israel’s wanted list, and confiscated nearly 2,500 rifles.

HAMAS CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY
       Wednesday’s suicide bombing near the northern port city of Haifa was the second major attack on Israeli civilians since Israel launched “Operation Defensive Shield” on March 29 in an attempt to crush Palestinian militias.
       The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the Haifa bombing, and sources in the group identified the assailant as Ayman Abu Haija, 22, from the Jenin camp. It was not clear when Abu Haija left the camp, which has been under Israeli siege for a week. 
       Police said eight people were killed, including Noa Shlomo, 18, a niece of Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Yehuda Lancry, police said. Fourteen others were wounded.
       Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin said the bombing was a sign that Israel could not be expected to keep withdrawing from Palestinian cities — as the United States has demanded — until it has hunted down Palestinian militants.
       “If we don’t complete the job and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and defeat terrorism, the chances to reach a cease-fire and move to a political process are dim,” he said.
In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer expressed disappointment at Israel’s reluctance to withdraw, but suggested it was not unexpected. “I don’t think this surprises the American people that this is a challenge, that this is difficult, that people in the region don’t simply stop, salute the United States, and say, ‘Yes sir.”’ 
Earlier, Fleischer said the latest suicide bombing “reinforces for the president the need for all parties to step back, for Israel to withdraw and for the Palestinians and the Arabs to stop the violence, to stop the killing.” 
       Israel, meanwhile, faced the threat of a second front in its battle against militants. On Wednesday, Lebanese guerrillas fired more than a dozen rockets at the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and northern Israel in the most extensive attack since Israel withdrew from Lebanon nearly two years ago.
       Israeli leaders have held Syria, the main power in Lebanon, responsible for cross-border attacks. However, Israel has not retaliated harshly until now, apparently for fear of exposing itself to a war on its northern border.
       The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Vice President Dick Cheney called Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday to voice concern that the conflict could widen to Lebanon.
       But according to a report Wednesday on website of the Israeli daily Haaretz, the Syrian leader did not give a definitive pledge to restrain Hizballah.
       A spokeswoman for Cheney could not be reached for comment on the reported telephone call.
       
JOINT DECLARATION
       On Wednesday, Powell joined a chorus of countries demanded that Israel pull back its forces in the West Bank. The United Nations, Russia, the European Union and the United States also urged Arafat to do everything possible to halt attacks against Israeli civilians.
       “We call on Israel to halt immediately its military operations. We call for an immediate meaningful cease-fire and immediate Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities, including Ramallah, specifically including Chairman Arafat’s headquarters,” said the statement, read by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a news conference. At Annan’s side were Powell, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar representing the EU, and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
       “We call on Chairman Arafat as the recognized elected leader of the Palestinian people to undertake immediately the maximum possible effort to stop terror attacks against innocent Israelis,” the statement said.
     NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, traveling with Powell, reported from Spain that the U.S. secretary continued his Mideast mission with meetings with European and Russian officials on Wednesday.
       
JENIN BATTLE OVER?
       Meantime, the fighting wound down in Jenin, the scene of the deadliest fighting during the offensive.
       One Hamas official, Jamal Abu al-Haija, said the Palestinian resistance was finished. “There are a large number of martyrs. Many have been arrested. The Israelis are in total control and there is no more fighting,” he told Reuters by telephone from inside the West Bank camp.
       Later Wednesday, about 300 camp residents, including fighters, women and children, surrendered to Israeli troops. It was not clear how many fighters were still holding out.
       At a nearby Israeli checkpoint, a long line of tanks and armored personnel carriers was parked by the roadside, apparently waiting to enter the camp. 
       Newsweek’s Josh Hammer reported from a hillside overlooking the camp that some smoke was still rising over the warren of houses inside the camp, but that there was no more shooting. There were even kids wandering around the streets which had been the scene of deadly encounters between Israelis and Palestinians.
       On Tuesday, 14 Israeli soldiers were killed in the camp — 13 in an ambush and one in fighting later in the day. It was one of the worst losses sustained by the Israeli military in combat since the 1973 Mideast war.
       The soldiers had stumbled into a trap prepared by Palestinian gunmen. A group of soldiers entered the courtyard when dozens of linked charges went off, possibly detonated by a suicide bomber. The force and other soldiers rushing to their rescue then came under fire from gunmen on nearby rooftops.
       Several Israeli commentators criticized the military for sending reserve soldiers, who have had little recent training in urban warfare, into such a complex situation. 
       More than 100 Palestinians are believed to have been killed in the Jenin camp, with many bodies still lying in the street. Among those reported dead was Mahmoud Tawalbeh, a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group. Tawalbeh, 23, has masterminded a number of suicide bombings in Israel.
       The Palestinian leadership said Thursday should be set aside in the Arab and Islamic world to “honor the resistance of Jenin and
       those who have resisted the aggression on Jenin.” Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin called for a day of fasting and prayer.