Stage set for peace visit

RAMALLAH - Israeli tanks started rolling out of the Palestinian town of Ramallah yesterday under orders from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon issued just before he met United States peace envoy Anthony Zinni.

The three-day seizure of the West Bank commercial hub had aroused Palestinian fury and drawn strong criticism from the United States and Europe.

Washington said the military offensive was threatening Zinni's mission to broker an end to almost 18 months of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed.

A Reuters correspondent on the outskirts of Ramallah, the power base of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, saw dozens of tanks leaving by two different routes towards the south.

Palestinian gunmen who had confronted the might of the Israeli Army since it moved in on Tuesday celebrated with volleys of gunfire into the air.

"The pullout from Ramallah has begun," an Israeli military source said. "The withdrawal of forces from Ramallah will be finished by morning, in accordance with the order from Jerusalem," a security source said.

The departing troops had apparently reserved some parting shots.

"Six Israeli jeeps opened fire with their machineguns at Arafat's office," said an Arafat aide.

"Arafat's guards returned fire and a 20-minute gun battle ensued before the Israelis withdrew," Nabil Abu Rdainah said. The Israeli Army was checking the report.

Initial Palestinian reaction to Sharon's pullback order was scornful. In an interview yesterday, Arafat dismissed the withdrawal as a trick and a propaganda ploy.

A senior Israeli diplomatic source said Sharon had ordered a full but gradual withdrawal from Ramallah but would leave a cordon around the town.

The United States noted Israel's plan but called for a complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Palestinian-run areas they have recently entered to help Zinni's work.

The European Union called the phased withdrawal from Ramallah necessary but not enough and said it, too, was engaged in intensive efforts to achieve a Middle East ceasefire.

As diplomatic pressure mounted for a halt to the conflict, sparked in September 2000 by a revolt against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Army said gunmen who had infiltrated from Lebanon carried out Tuesday's attack in northern Israel which killed five civilians and a soldier.

The Army did not say so but military sources fingered the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hizbollah movement, raising the spectre of cross-border retaliation and further escalation of regional tensions before an Arab League summit in Beirut this month.

Zinni arrived in Israel yesterday on his third peace mission to the region since November. After his late-night talks with Sharon, he was due to meet Arafat in his Ramallah compound.

Sharon's withdrawal order followed a series of blows to Zinni's hopes of ending the bloodshed.

Palestinian militants blew up an Israeli Merkava-3 tank in the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing three soldiers as they accompanied a convoy of Jewish settlers.

In other acts that fuelled tension, the Palestinians vowed not to hold truce talks until the Israeli offensive ended, the militant Islamic group Hamas pledged to continue attacks during Zinni's visit, and Israel killed a militant in a missile attack.

Sharon sent about 150 tanks and a large number of troops into Ramallah on Tuesday as part of Israel's broadest military offensive in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since it occupied the territories in the 1967 Middle East war.

At least 1063 Palestinians and 344 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began after peace talks froze.

A coalition of militant groups in the Gaza Strip said they blew up the Merkava-3 tank, the pride of the Israeli Army.

It was the second Merkava-3 lost in a month. A Palestinian bomb destroyed a tank in Gaza last month, killing three crew.

Hours after the latest Gaza attack, an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile which killed Mu'tasen Hammad, a local leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, as he sat in his car in a village near Tulkarm.

The Brigades have claimed responsibility for most of the Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the past two months.

- REUTERS

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