US envoy calls it quits as Middle East violence escalates

By SHAHDI AL-KASHIF

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Washington has recalled its envoy from a derailed Middle East peace mission, following more forays by Israeli forces into Palestine.

Israeli troops plunged deep into Palestinian-ruled areas of Gaza last night to round up militants, leaving several Palestinians dead.

Escalating violence has brought to a standstill the effort by Anthony Zinni to broker a cease-fire - the first intensive peace mission launched in the Middle East by President Bush.

The latest violence came hours after Washington used its veto at the UN to kill a Security Council resolution calling for international monitors in the West Bank and Gaza. It said the plan was biased against Israel and would not promote peace.

Israeli troops shot and killed four Palestinians after some 20 tanks rumbled into the Palestinian-ruled town of Beit Hanoun in north Gaza before dawn.

Palestinian officials said more than 50 people were injured in the raid. They said Israeli troops arrested 10 members of the militant Hamas group, whose suicide bombers have killed scores of Israelis, and destroyed four homes and three security positions before leaving on Saturday night.

An Israeli army statement said troops had arrested 15 Palestinians, including a number wanted by Israel, and destroyed the home of a Hamas military leader as well as a second building used for "terrorist activities."

Troops later withdrew but violence continued to rage into the night elsewhere. Witnesses reported Israeli-Palestinian gunbattles near Beit Hanoun and near the West Bank city of Nablus, where medical officials said seven Palestinians were hospitalized for their wounds.

Raanan Gissin, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, told Reuters that Israel would carry out more operations like the one in Beit Hanoun unless Palestinian President Yasser Arafat crushed militant groups himself.

"We will carry on our efforts to fight terror infrastructure until such time as Arafat fulfils his commitment to take the action he said he would take," Gissin said.

In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian who they said might have been a suicide bomber trying to infiltrate a Jewish settlement.

The State Department said Zinni would return to Washington at least temporarily for consultations at the request of Secretary of State Colin Powell after spending three weeks in the area.

It said Zinni would "remain engaged and return to the region" but warned efforts to broker a truce faced "major challenges."

More than 40 Israelis have been killed in suicide bombings and shootings since Zinni arrived in late November. Zinni was in Cairo on Saturday with US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns for talks with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.

Washington wants a resumption of Middle East peacemaking to shore up Arab support for its anti-terror campaign against Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

In Beit Hanoun, hundreds of Palestinian youths confronted Israeli troops and tanks which occupied the town in the hunt for militants. They hurled rocks and set tires ablaze.

Palestinian officials said Israeli troops shot dead three youths in the head in the Beit Hanoun clashes. The Israeli army said it had no report of such incidents.

Palestinians said Israeli troops also killed a policeman and wounded four in the town as they patrolled to prevent militant mortar fire at Israeli posts. Israel said it was returning fire and Palestinians had launched two mortars at their base.

Witnesses said tanks also thrust briefly into an area near Rafah, in southern Gaza, as troops hunted for militants. Eight Palestinians died on Friday and about 50 were arrested during similar operations on the West Bank.

Some 200,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip among three million Palestinians. The international community regards Israeli settlements in the occupied territories as illegal, although Israel disputes this.

At least 780 Palestinians and 233 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September 2000 shortly after peace talks hit an impasse.

In Cairo, the 22-member Arab League said Palestinian authorities had asked the group to hold an emergency foreign ministers' meeting on December 20 to discuss the violence.

Members are to pass on the request to their governments.

Palestinian officials said they had closed down four Hamas and Islamic Jihad offices on Saturday, fulfilling Arafat's promise to crack down on institutions linked to militant groups after an ambush on an Israeli bus killed 10 people on Wednesday.

But Palestinians say arrests of militants are impossible amid Israeli tank raids and reoccupation of Palestinian areas.

"Arafat cannot move one policeman from one place to another," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told CNN.

- REUTERS

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