Defiant Israel accused of torture

Israel today invaded another West Bank village and maintained its occupation of most principal towns in defiance of growing US calls for an immediate withdrawal and a European Union threat of economic sanctions.

The largely US-financed Israeli tanks entered Beir Zeit, north of Ramallah, while human rights groups accused soldiers of executions and torture of Palestinians who had surrendered in Jenin, the scene of the heaviest fighting so far.

The move came as a suspected Palestinian suicide bomber died when the explosives he was carrying detonated in the West Bank city of Hebron, apparently by accident.

A number of bystanders were injured and body parts were scattered over a hundred yards. The explosion was near a taxi rank where cabs leave for cities in Israel.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment alleged that two gunmen were shot dead by Israeli troops after they had surrendered.

Btselem, the main Israeli human rights organisation, said it had evidence of torture at detention camps where more than 1,000 men from Jenin alone have been taken after they gave themselves up yesterday.

The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian crisis and bitterly criticised Israel for the invasions, which began two weeks ago and continued as Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, was due to arrive in Israel today. Neither side has expressed much hope that his visit will improve the situation.

Israeli premier Ariel Sharon has told front-line troops that their operations will continue until all terror cells - which yesterday killed eight Israelis in a bus bomb near Haifa - had been crushed.

Most Palestinians claim that American and Israeli policy is indistinguishable.

Captured Palestinian Khaled Ishkarat alleged he was tortured and used as a human shield after he was seized in Jenin, where 150 Palestiniansand more than 20 Israelis have been killed. He was released without charge after five days and spoke in a harsh whisper, holding his elbows parallel to the ground because, doctors said, his ribs had been broken. Ishkarat said Israeli troops had beaten him with rifles.

"They stormed into my house in the Jenin refugee camp. I said there were no fighters here but they took me and my brother Mohammed away. We were dragged onto the street. The soldiers made us walk in front of them into more houses and made us call for the people to come out.

"One house we went into the Israelis just fired randomly and threw grenades ahead of them. I heard the screaming of women and children. I don't know what happened to them," he said in the village of Romana while the noise from fighting in Jenin echoed from five miles away.

Palestinians can exaggerate their experiences at the hands of Israelis and are aware of the propaganda points that stories from men like Ishkarat can score. He claimed that Israeli troops stripped him on the street to search for suicide bombs before throwing him into the back of an armoured vehicle, blindfolded and bound.

He added: "They stood on our heads and took us to Salem, an Arab village just inside Israel proper to the west of the 1967 Green Line where we were held with hundreds of other prisoners for five days while they were screened."

There was no doubting Ishkarat's injuries. His bandaged back was purple with bruises. He had a four-inch cut on his forehead, the width of a rifle butt. On the back of his neck, a cigarette burn was clearly visible.

In Romana, where former detainees are gathered, hoping to get news from their families still trapped in Jenin, the atmosphere is deeply anti-American. Although the US has repeatedly demanded that Israel, which gets $3 billion a year in American aid, should end its invasion of the West Bank, the Palestinians are not convinced.

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