Israel to Leave Most West Bank Cities by Weekend

Israel pledged on Thursday to withdraw from most West Bank cities by the end of the week but said its forces would besiege Yasser Arafat's compound and Bethlehem's Nativity church until militants inside surrendered.

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

A senior State Department official said Powell could return "in two or 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 cities of Nablus, Jenin and parts of Ramallah by Sunday but would remain around Arafat's Ramallah compound and the Church of the Nativity until a standoff with militants was resolved.

"It should be clear that we will not be able to leave the area of Bethlehem and the Mukata (Arafat's Ramallah compound) where there are terrorists being hidden until the terrorists are handed over to us," Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio.

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

A weary Powell told reporters in closing out his mission on Wednesday 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 over his 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.

(China Daily April 19, 2002)