Relief in sight for battered Jenin

International aid agencies working in the West Bank are poised to move urgently needed supplies into the Palestinian refugee camp at Jenin, which has been hit hard by the Israeli military campaign.
The camp, which is home to about 14,000 refugees, has been cut off for days since Israeli soldiers began searching for militants there and at least 100 Palestinians are believed to have been killed.

An aid convoy from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) managed to enter the town on Tuesday to join International Red Cross teams after pressing the Israeli authorities for days for access.

Israeli army officers quoted by a respected Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, said that the threat to ground troops from gunmen in the camp was so great that they were using bulldozers to plough their way through.

On Monday alone, 10 Israeli soldiers were killed there, the Israeli Foreign Ministry told the BBC.

The officers said they were worried that the truth about the level of destruction wreaked in Jenin would do Israel's reputation abroad "great damage".

"However many wanted men we kill in the refugee camp... there is still no justification for causing such great destruction," said one of the anonymous officers.