Israel Leaving Two West Bank Cities
By Jeffrey Heller
Reuters
JERUSALEM (April 9) - Israeli forces began leaving two West Bank cities on Tuesday after President Bush delivered a tough message to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to start a pullout from Palestinian areas, Israel Radio said.
The Israeli Defense Ministry had said in a statement the army would move overnight out of Qalqilya and Tulkarm in the central West Bank and ''tighten the closure around them.'' Both cities are close to the Israeli border.
Israel Radio said at 3 a.m. that its military affairs correspondent, who is briefed regularly by the army, reported the withdrawal had begun.
An army spokeswoman, asked about the report, declined to comment.
Witnesses in Tulkarm told Reuters they could see tanks pulling out of the city and soldiers evacuating rooftops and schools under a heavy barrage of covering fire. There was no immediate word from residents or officials in Qalqilya.
''It's a start,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in the first U.S. reaction.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking at the start of a Middle East mission, welcomed the announcement of the planned pullout, but added: ''Let us hope that this is not a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but the beginning of a pullback.''
There was no indication when Sharon planned to pull Israeli armor and soldiers out of other West Bank cities, villages and refugee camps seized in a fierce offensive after a suicide bomber killed 27 people in Israel on March 27.
The ministry said the army was ordered to ''redeploy'' around Qalqilya and Tulkarm because it had completed its sweep for militants and weapons in the two cities.
But failure to heed Bush's demands had threatened to plunge Israel deeper into diplomatic conflict with the United States, its main ally and provider of $3 billion in annual aid.
Bush went out of his way on Monday to show his impatience with Sharon's continued defiance of his calls for an end to Israel's biggest military campaign in the West Bank since it captured the area in the 1967 Middle East war.
''I meant what I said to the prime minister of Israel. I expect there to be withdrawal without delay,'' Bush heatedly told reporters on a visit to Tennessee.
Fighting raged on Monday in the Palestinian-ruled cities of Jenin and Nablus, and Israeli troops fired shots at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where 200 gunmen and civilians were holed up. Each side said the other fired first.
Israeli forces shot dead five Palestinians -- a woman, a mother and son and two gunmen in Jenin refugee camp. Two Israeli soldiers were killed.
In Ramallah, troops killed three Palestinians, including a man accompanying his wife after she had given birth, Palestinian witnesses and medical officials said. Israel has said it has killed some 200 Palestinians since the operation began.
ZINNI DELIVERS MESSAGE
To make sure Sharon got his message, Bush sent his Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni to deliver it personally to the Israeli leader at his Jerusalem office.
Bush, who had been scathing in his criticism of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat over recent suicide bombings in Israel, began piling pressure on Sharon as European and Arab leaders stepped up calls for stronger U.S. intervention to end 18 months of bloodshed.
Before meeting Zinni, Sharon told parliament the military operation would be speeded up but continue until the army achieved its goals.
Israeli commentators, however, had forecast Israel would bow to U.S. pressure and carry out a partial pullout ahead of the arrival later in the week of Powell, who began his Middle East mission in Morocco on Monday.
Powell received a chilly reception from Morocco's King Mohammed, who asked him why he had not begun in Jerusalem.
Powell told the king he ''had considered all options'' and wanted a chance to consult with European Union and Arab colleagues beforehand to coordinate his mission.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein hit back at the Israeli incursion by announcing an immediate month-long suspension of all Iraqi oil exports, sending oil prices soaring.
TENSIONS ON ISRAEL'S NORTHERN BORDER
Tensions rose along Israel's northern border where Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas attacked Israeli military positions in a disputed frontier area, drawing Israeli artillery fire and air strikes on south Lebanese border towns.
Late on Monday, at least two rockets were fired at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shimona from an area on the Lebanese border controlled by Hizbollah. Israeli security sources said both landed harmlessly.
Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer's office said he spoke by telephone with Powell and asked him to press Syria, the main powerbroker in Lebanon, to rein in Hizbollah.
Border violence during Israel's West Bank offensive has fanned fears in Israel that Hizbollah -- which has often hinted it would intervene militarily to back the Palestinian uprising -- is trying to open a second front.
BATTLE AT CHURCH
In Bethlehem, the army said gunmen fired and threw grenades from the compound of the Church of the Nativity at soldiers surrounding it and troops fired back after two Israeli border policemen were wounded. The Palestinians denied firing first.
Witnesses said a Palestinian policeman was shot dead at the compound of the church, built on the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born.
In Vatican City, Pope John Paul said violence in the Holy Land had escalated to ''unimaginable and intolerable levels.''
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said on Monday Israel would ease a quarantine of Arafat by letting him meet Powell.
Asked in a BBC interview if Powell would meet Arafat, Peres said ''Yes,'' and suggested the encounter could take place in the besieged Palestinian leader's Ramallah headquarters.
Palestinian officials had said they would boycott Powell if he did not hold talks with Arafat.
At least 1,238 Palestinians and 422 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising began.
Reuters 20:57 04-08-02
Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited. |
