In Friday's fighting, Israeli forces battled gunmen and searched homes in the West Bank's largest city, Nablus, and the Jenin refugee camp. A standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem entered its fourth day, and protesters in the biblical city planned an anti-American demonstration later in the afternoon. Three Palestinian gunmen were killed in the old city of Nablus, as Israeli helicopter gunships fired at armed Palestinians. Doctors opened a makeshift hospital in a mosque because ambulances could not enter, they said. Israeli soldiers were unable to enter the old city or the nearby Balata and Askar refugee camps because of heavy Palestinian resistance, witnesses said. The Israeli military said soldiers did not try to enter the three places. Four Israeli soldiers were killed Thursday, three in intense fighting at the Jenin camp, a stronghold of militant militias, and another in Hebron during what Israeli military sources called a small, pinpoint operation that continued early Friday. Hebron and Jericho were the only main West Bank towns still under Palestinian control.
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