Israel Begins Ramallah, Nablus Pullout

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, April 21, 2002

Israel Begins Ramallah, Nablus Pullout

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Israeli army tanks and troops began withdrawing from Nablus and parts of Ramallah early Sunday, following Friday's pullout of the Jenin refugee camp, occurred even as conflict in the Middle East threatened to spill into the Gaza Strip, largely untouched by the Israeli offensive.

Israel said Saturday it welcomed an inquiry into alleged atrocities in the Jenin camp. Israel's position came a day after the UN Security Council voted unanimously to send a fact-finding team to the camp to investigate.

The UN Security Council votes unanimously to send a fact-finding team to the Jenin refugee camp to investigate allegations of a massacre of Palestinian civilians.

The witenesses said Israeli tanks had departed Sunday from three strategic points in the center, north and western parts of Nablus while other army vehicles had quit the nearby Balata refugee camp. A Reuters Television cameraman reported tanks on the move out of the city.

Late Saturday, dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers were seen leaving Ramallah, witnesses and Palestinian intelligence sources said. A reporter saw more than 15 more tanks and armored personnel carriers traveling along a main road.

Ramallah residents said tanks were on the move out of parts of the city but were staying around Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's compound, where he has been trapped for weeks in an Israeli bid to isolate him.

"We are starting with the northern neighborhoods of Ramallah. We will redeploy around the city. That will be finished in the next day or so, according to our commitment to the US to do so by the end of the week," a senior Israeli political source told Reuters.

"The withdrawal from Nablus will be completed in the next day or so," he said.

With Israelis and Palestinians differing sharply on the scale of the death and destruction in the refugee camp, the UN Security Council on Friday night approved sending a UN team there to determine what happened.

The Palestinians say the Israeli military massacred civilians in Jenin during its three-week-old offensive - an accusation Israel denies.

VIOLENCE IN GAZA

Israel pulled its troops out of Jenin on Friday and promised more over the weekend. But as it scaled back its presence in West Bank cities, clashes increased in the Gaza Strip.

A lone Palestinian stormed a heavily fortified Israeli crossing point on the edge of the Gaza Strip, killing an Israeli border policeman with gunfire and grenades before he was killed by return fire from an Israeli tank.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the assault and identified the attacker as Eiman Judeh, of Gaza City.

In a funeral procession in Gaza City, hundreds of chanting Palestinians carried the black-draped coffins of two militants of the Islamic Jihad organization killed in a gunbattle Friday with Israeli troops, in what Israel said was an attempt to stage a terrorist attack on the settlement of Netzarim.

'WE ARE READY FOR MARTYRDOM'

"Sharon should expect all doors of hell to break loose," vowed one masked militant, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "We are ready for martyrdom. But the occupation will never be safe on the land of historical Palestine, from the river to the sea," the man told the crowd.

The two militants were among seven Palestinians, including two children, killed by army fire on Friday. Also, an activist from Islamic Jihad blew himself up at an army checkpoint in Gaza, killing himself and wounding two soldiers.

Israel launched its offensive in the West Bank on March 29 with the aim of crushing Palestinian militias after a string of suicide bombings. The operation has not targeted the Gaza Strip, which is where the Islamic militant Hamas group's leadership is located but which has not been the source of suicide bombers.

US ENVOY TOURS JENIN

In the West Bank, calls mounted for speedy humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees in Jenin.

A young Palestinian, Sari Badi, said he had been trapped in the rubble for nine days and pulled out Saturday. However, hospital officials cast doubt on his story. Red Cross spokeswoman Jessica Barry said, "We can't confirm his story. We don't have details on how long he was trapped."

As camp residents continued to pick through the rubble, looking for possessions and bodies, William Burns, assistant secretary of state for the Near East, toured the ruins of Jenin on Saturday. "I just think what we are seeing here is a terrible human tragedy," he told Reuters in the camp's flattened center.

Burns, the most senior U.S. official to visit the camp since Israeli forces pulled out on Friday, was accompanied by UN officials and armed bodyguards.

"It's important that the United Nations is going to launch a fact-finding mission to try to find exactly what happened here with the cooperation of Palestinians and Israelis both," he said.

As the fighting escalated in recent weeks, President Bush sent Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region to try to arrange a truce. But after a week of shuttle diplomacy, Powell returned to the United States without an agreement.

BUSH LAUDS POWELL EFFORT

In his weekly radio address, Bush said Saturday that Powell had "intensive and productive meetings" during his trip and had made progress toward peace.

He repeated his calls for Arafat to condemn suicide bombings and for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian-controlled territory.

"All parties must realize that the only long-term solution is for two states - Israel and Palestine - to live side by side in security and peace," Bush said.

The UN resolution passed Friday night said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, with cooperation from Israel, was welcome to send a "fact-finding team" to gather information on the fighting in Jenin.

Israel's UN Mission said Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Annan that "Israel has nothing to hide regarding the operation in Jenin," adding, "Our hands are clean."

HELP FOR SURVIVORS

In the West Bank on Saturday, international and local aid organizations trying to deliver food and medicines to Nablus were refused entry to the city by soldiers, despite having been previously granted permission, a relief worker said.

"We got the green light in the morning, but when we got to Nablus, it seems the situation had changed," said Peter Holland, of Oxfam Quebec, adding no reason was given for the reversal.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops have captured or killed at least 15 Palestinians on its most wanted list, according to the findings of Associated Press reporters in Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron. The reporters questioned Palestinian security officials, activists in the militant groups, hospital workers and relatives of those on the list published in January by Yediot Ahronot, an Israeli newspaper.

Israeli soldiers patrol Thursday near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Click "Play" to hear about the latest developments in the West Bank town.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said troops would remain near Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity until standoffs with militants ended.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

On Saturday, Israeli forces blindfolded and detained a Palestinian photographer for the Reuters news agency just outside Jenin. Reuters formally protested the detention of Mahfouz Abu Turk, 52, and demanded his immediate release or an explanation for his detention. A statement from Israel's Foreign Press Association also said it was "gravely concerned" about the detention.

Arafat offered Friday to put the suspected killers of far-right Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi on trial in a Palestinian court, said Mohammed Rashid, an aide to Arafat. He said the suspects had been moved to the presidential compound in Ramallah from a prison in Nablus in February for investigation. Israel rejected the offer.

In Ramallah, two Palestinian children, ages 9 and 14, were killed Friday by army fire in separate incidents, Palestinian doctors said. The army had no comment.

Source: Agencies

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