Israel Enters Palestinian Suburbs After Pledge to Withdraw Troops
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Israeli tanks rolled into three Palestinian suburbs of Jerusalem and re-entered a West Bank city Tuesday, despite Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's promise to the U.S. to withdraw soldiers from most Palestinian areas by next week.
Mr. Sharon spoke hours after Israeli troops captured a top Palestinian fugitive, Marwan Barghouti, who is accused by Israel of financing and directing a militia responsible for scores of shooting and bombing attacks on Israelis.
A military official, meanwhile, confirmed that Israel has reopened the notorious desert detention camp of Ketziot to hold some of the more than 4,200 Palestinians it has rounded up in its 19-day military offensive.
In Jerusalem, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was to hold talks with Mr. Sharon on Tuesday, followed by a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at his besieged headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Wednesday. Palestinian officials said they are working on a joint statement with the U.S. that would condemn suicide bombings and call for an Israeli troop withdrawal.
Also Tuesday, Mr. Sharon renewed his offer for resolving the two-week standoff at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. He said wanted men among the more than 200 armed Palestinians holed up in one of Christianity's holiest shrines should surrender and could choose between trial and deportation. Palestinians have rejected the proposal. President Bush told Mr. Sharon in a phone call that ending the siege at the church is one of Mr. Powell's most urgent priorities.
Mr. Powell said Tuesday "we are making progress" in talks with Israel and the Palestinians, and that he hopes to work out some kind of cease-fire within 24 hours. Speaking ahead of a meeting with a group of Palestinian professionals, he said the deal probably would be something less than a formal cease-fire, but didn't spell out what might be in the offing.
Troops Declare Curfew in Suburbs
Before dawn Tuesday, Israel tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled into Abu Dis, Izzariyeh and Sawahra As-Sharkiyeh, three suburbs of Jerusalem. Troops declared a curfew, confining tens of thousands of residents to their homes. Israeli troops also re-entered Tulkarem, one of two towns evacuated April 9. Witnesses said tanks drove in from four directions, covered by attack helicopters. The Israeli military said the incursion was aimed at making arrests, not reoccupying the town. Troops left by midmorning, witnesses said.
Israel said Monday it was winding up its military operation in the West Bank, but major obstacles still stand in the way of achieving a cease-fire agreement with the Palestinians.
Mr. Sharon told CNN that Israeli troops would be withdrawn from most West Bank cities within a week. He said troops would remain in Bethlehem and in Ramallah.
He said Israeli troops would pull back only to the outskirts of many of the towns they now occupy, taking up positions they occupied when the latest operation began on March 29. The West Bank towns need to be encircled to prevent further suicide bombings, he said.
Palestinian officials and many Arab governments have been demanding that the Israeli army pull back to positions it held before the violence erupted in September 2000.
As an inducement to get Palestinian support for a cease-fire, Mr. Powell told reporters that the U.S. was discussing convening an international peace conference to revive talks on creation of a Palestinian state and Arab recognition of Israel. Mr. Sharon supports the idea but has said he won't deal with Mr. Arafat. Mr. Powell said one idea would be sending a delegation of high-level Palestinian officials in place of Mr. Arafat.
"It doesn't necessarily require his presence to get started," Mr. Powell said of Mr. Arafat. "In fact, Chairman Arafat has the authority to appoint other Palestinians to represent him." A senior U.S. official said the idea hasn't been formally presented to Mr. Arafat yet.
A U.S. official said the conference could be held in the Mideast or Europe and would be a way to get the parties quickly back to the negotiating table, with talks possibly beginning at the foreign-minister level. "The conference in and of itself isn't the solution, but it's a way to get the parties together and talking," Mr. Powell said.
Palestinian officials were incensed on Monday by the arrest of Mr. Barghouti, a top official in Mr. Arafat's Fatah movement. Israeli troops detained him and his brother in Ramallah. Israel has accused Mr. Barghouti of involvement in suicide bombings and ambushes that have killed scores of Israelis during an 18-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
Mr. Barghouti, who had been in hiding, has in the past denied the allegations but says that Palestinians have a right to resist Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He is the highest-ranking Fatah activist detained by Israel since the start of the Israeli incursion, which the army says is aimed at rooting out terrorists in the West Bank.
EU Treads Cautiously
Meanwhile, the European Union steered clear of taking drastic diplomatic action against Israel, mindful that any new initiatives could jeopardize Mr. Powell's efforts to mediate a cease-fire.
Meeting on Monday, foreign ministers from the EU's 15-member countries refused to consider the idea of suspending preferential trade relations with Israel, rendering meaningless earlier threats from the European Parliament.
At the same time, the foreign ministers discussed a German peace plan, which distills earlier proposals from the U.S., the EU and the United Nations Security Council. The plan, unveiled last week by the German foreign ministry, demands a cease-fire, a withdrawal of the Israeli troops from the recently occupied Palestinian lands and an early recognition of the Palestinian state. The plan also stipulates a deployment of international observers to monitor the cease-fire and calls for a final agreement to be negotiated over two years.
In Washington on Monday, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was roundly booed at a pro-Israel rally when he told thousands of people at the Capitol that both Palestinians and Israelis were victims of violence.
Mr. Powell traveled on Monday to Lebanon and Syria to press leaders there to rein in rocket attacks by Hezbollah guerrillas that have been launched almost daily on Israel's northern border. U.S. officials are worried that if the attacks continue or intensify, they could prompt tougher Israeli reprisals and maybe a wider regional war. Mr. Powell said he received assurances from Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and Syrian President Bashar Assad that they would contact Hezbollah leaders about stopping the attacks.
Meanwhile, in Nablus, troops continued arrest sweeps Tuesday. In the Raffidiyeh area of Nablus, troops ordered men out of apartment buildings and took them to an area school, witnesses said. Among those detained and handcuffed was Associated Press reporter Mohammed Daraghmeh. The army had no comment on his detention.
In the Jenin refugee camp at the northern edge of the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and Red Cross teams began gathering the bodies of Palestinians killed during the weeklong battle. Palestinians charge that Israel committed a massacre there. Mr. Sharon called that a "lie."
-- Wall Street Journal reporter David S. Cloud contributed to this article.
Updated April 16, 2002 6:02 a.m. EDT |
