Israeli Army Accused of Atrocities

JENIN, West Bank -- Khadra Samara, her family and closest neighbors lived in three adjacent cinder-block houses on Rwabe Street, a relatively quiet corner of the Palestinian refugee camp here.

For 17 terrifying hours this week, she says, the 30 unarmed neighbors fled on hands and knees from one three-story home to the next, huddling together as Israeli helicopter gunships, tanks and bulldozers reduced the buildings to rubble in methodical succession.

Israel's fiercest assault of its 2-week-old West Bank operation dealt systematic destruction and random death to civilians as well as fighters in this militant Palestinian stronghold, according to displaced residents of the camp and relief workers in Jenin. The battle was all but over Thursday with the surrender of dozens of Palestinians, the last holdouts among an estimated 200 fighters.