Toll of the bloody battle of Jenin

The ferocious battle for Jenin camp - a square kilometre housing 16,000 people - last night entered the bloody lore of the Middle East: a fiasco for Israel, an immensely costly victory for the Palestinians, who reportedly suffered as many as 100 dead, with corpses rotting in the lanes of the camp for days.
Israeli military officials said 13 reservists were dead, eight of their comrades wounded - a toll far outstripping any other day of military casualties during the 18-month uprising. They come from among the 31,000 civilians called up for the sweeping military offensive launched by the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, 12 days ago. The call-up was sold to the Israeli public as the only way of providing security after a relentless wave of Palestinian suicide attacks. That argument will be more difficult to swallow now that so many part-time soldiers are dead. Israel made a vow of vengeance.

"This group of suicide bombers has refused to surrender, and still refuses to answer all our calls to surrender. We will continue to fight as long as necessary despite this loss," said the army's West Bank commander, General Yitzhak Eitan. "We will continue until we make this camp submit."