Unfinished business keeps Israel in Bethlehem, Ramallah

JERUSALEM - Israel pledged yesterday to withdraw from most West Bank towns by the end of the weekend but said its forces would besiege Yasser Arafat's compound and Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity until militants inside surrendered.

The promise followed a Middle East mission by United States Secretary of State Colin Powell that failed to produce a ceasefire or an immediate Israeli withdrawal from shattered Palestinian towns that President George W. Bush first demanded on April 4.

Israeli armour and troops pulled out of the Jenin refugee camp last night.

A senior State Department official said Powell could return in two to three weeks, signalling a deeper US involvement in efforts to calm the conflict after the hands-off approach taken by the Bush Administration during its first year in power.

Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said troops would withdraw from the West Bank towns of Nablus, Jenin and parts of Ramallah by Monday but would remain around Arafat's Ramallah compound and the Church of the Nativity until a standoff with militants was resolved.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said on Israel Radio that "creative solutions" would be needed to end the deadlocks in Bethlehem and Ramallah and clear the way for a troop withdrawal from all Palestinian-ruled West Bank towns.

A weary Powell told reporters that the word "ceasefire" was not even relevant until Israel ended an offensive begun on March 29 after a string of suicide bombings that killed scores of people in Israel.

He also voiced dismay at Arafat's performance in curbing militant factions, saying he had told Arafat his Palestinian Authority must resolve to stifle terrorism and needed to make a "strategic choice" for peace.

Powell, whose trip was jolted by two Palestinian suicide bombings and fresh Israeli incursions into Palestinian towns and villages, promised to return but set no date.

The Palestinian Authority released a statement after Powell's departure accusing Israel of avoiding all chances to achieve peace and of sabotaging Powell's initiative.

"Israel is conducting theatrics to deceive international public opinion," it said, noting that the United Nations Security Council, Bush and other world leaders had wanted an immediate withdrawal.

Bush, who insisted Powell had made some progress towards peace, said Palestinians had to act on Arafat's condemnation of militant attacks, Israel had to follow through on troop pullbacks and Arab states had to "step up to their responsibilities".

All parties had to realise that "the only long-term solution was for two states - Israel, Palestine - to live side by side in security and in peace," he said.

Arafat angrily appealed for an end to the Israeli siege of his office. Talking to reporters after meeting Powell, he said: "I have to ask the Bush Administration [and] the international community, is this acceptable that I cannot go out the door?"

Israeli soldiers watched him through half-opened windows of nearby buildings.

Arafat has been confined to Ramallah since December, and to a few rooms of his shell-shattered headquarters since Israel began its West Bank offensive.

Israeli officials said Powell succeeded in persuading the Lebanese and Syrian Governments to stop Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas from shelling Israeli border positions, a flare-up that threatened to open a second front in the conflict.

Meanwhile, Palestinians yesterday began burying the dead from the fighting in the Jenin camp.

Medics and residents were seen carrying human remains, one man emerging from ruins holding two feet. A boy held a child's blackened foot inside rolled up jeans.

Palestinians brought two bulldozers into the camp to clear away debris, and residents following the stench searched for more bodies.

Palestinians have buried at least 27 of the Jenin dead, most of them in a yard outside the hospital, but the death toll is not known.

In Nablus, military authorities released some of the Palestinians detained in their sweep after questioning, including Associated Press reporter Mohammed Daraghmeh.

After Daraghmeh's release, soldiers told him to walk home, 10km away, even though the town was under a strict curfew.

Gunfire broke out near him at one point; later, soldiers posted in the town ordered him to strip to his underwear to check for weapons.

Daraghmeh made it home yesterday.

- REUTERS

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