Israel set to defy US over offensive

ISRAEL was last night preparing to escalate its devastating military offensive in Palestinian regions after President George Bush’s announcement that Washington will mount a major push for a ceasefire.

The army was consolidating its positions last night after invading Nablus late on Tuesday, and conducting house-to-house searches in Bethlehem as part of its stated objective of destroying "terrorist infrastructure" in the West Bank.

The campaign is believed to be taking a heavy toll on civilians. Palestinians reported from Nablus that a man was shot dead inside his home as he opened a window, while in Bethlehem, Samir Salman, who worked at the Church of the Nativity, was shot dead by snipers while trying to enter the church.

Last night, a siege by the Israeli army aimed at armed Palestinians in the church was still under way, amid reporters that food supplies among priests, Palestinian Authority officials and the fighters and policemen were running low.

Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Israel’s defence minister, has said Israel will not use force to enter the church, the traditional site of the birth of Jesus. However, Jamal Salman, the Bethlehem town manager, and religious leaders in touch with clerics inside said that Israeli forces had set off an explosion at one of the doors into the church.

"They tried to blow open the door of the Greek Orthodox convent," Mr Salman said. The iron door, which according to local tradition dates back more than 1,000 years, did not open, he said.