Israeli troops move into Hebron after both sides accept U.S. plan

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Posted 7:44AM on Monday, April 29, 2002

HEBRON, West Bank - Israeli forces pushed into this West Bank city Monday, just hours after Israel's Cabinet reluctantly agreed to a U.S. proposal to release Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from his monthlong confinement. Israel gave its consent with the understanding that the United States, in turn, would stand by Israel's side in a showdown with the United Nations over a fact-finding mission to the Jenin refugee camp, government officials said. A group of British and U.S. experts was to meet with Arafat later Monday to make the arrangements for moving six Palestinians sought by Israel who -- under the compromise arranged by President Bush -- are to be guarded by American and British wardens in a Palestinian jail. Once the six have left Arafat's headquarters, the Palestinian leader will be free to move in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but will not be able to go abroad. At another flashpoint, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a Palestinian militiaman was killed by Israeli sniper fire Monday when he stepped into a courtyard, the army said. The church, built over Jesus' traditional birth grotto, has been under Israeli siege for a month, with more than 200 armed Palestinians holed up inside. Israeli forces entered the West Bank city of Hebron at about 4:30 a.m., with tanks and armored personnel carriers driving in from all directions. Seven Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including five in a helicopter missile attack on a house, witnesses said. Troops arrested several suspected militants, including three leading members of the Islamic militant Hamas group, and found suitcases filled with explosives in two apartments, said the army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey. The incursion came in retaliation for a weekend attack on the nearby Jewish settlement of Adora, in which four Israelis, including a 5-year-old girl, were killed. Hamas claimed responsibility for that attack. Kitrey said the military would try to wrap up the mission as quickly as possible. "We have no interest in staying there," Kitrey told Israel's army radio. The United States has repeatedly called on Israel to withdraw forces from Palestinian towns, but standoffs between Israeli troops and wanted Palestinians in Bethlehem and at Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah have held up a troop pullback. Arafat's monthlong confinement appeared to be drawing to a close, after Israel on Sunday agreed to a U.S.-proposed arrangement for six wanted men inside the compound -- the four killers of Israeli Cabinet Minister Rehavam Zeevi, the leader of their political faction and an Arafat aide suspected of arms smuggling. Israel's agreement to the compromise came after a series of phone calls this weekend between Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and after a stormy six-hour Cabinet meeting in which a first vote on Arafat's fate ended in a tie. Sharon could have swayed the decision with his decisive vote, but instead called a lunch recess and called Bush to report on his difficulties, the Haaretz daily said. Bush told Sharon that if Israel accepted the U.S. compromise proposal regarding Arafat, the United States would stand by Israel during its increasingly heated confrontation with the United Nations over the Jenin mission, Haaretz said. Bush also invited Sharon to Washington for talks, Sharon's spokesman said. The White House said the date of the visit would be set on Monday. Israeli officials on Monday confirmed the link between Arafat's release and the Jenin investigation. "I assume that ... some sort of agreement was reached," said Israel's deputy defense minister, Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, "according to which Ariel Sharon gave up on his insistence that Arafat be isolated in his headquarters ... and at this stage, we win U.S. backing concerning our reservations on the issue of the U.N. committee." A senior Palestinian official said the United States raised concern about a trial last week in which the four Zeevi killers were sentenced to prison terms by a makeshift court in Arafat's compound. The United States wants the trial to be held again, under different circumstances, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat, meanwhile, said Israel acted in bad faith by sending troops into Hebron. "The moment we accepted the American proposal (on Arafat's confinement), we have an incursion into Hebron," Erekat said. "Every time we show good will ... Israel slaps us in the face." Israel, meanwhile, said it would not cooperate with a U.N. mission looking into a weeklong battle between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen at the Jenin camp unless demands for changes in the composition and mandate of the team were met. "I think we have to disagree with the United Nations now, even at the cost of world opinion," said Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir, accusing the U.N. of an anti-Israel bias. "They want to set us up," he said. Israel in effect banned the team from arriving. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told the head of the mission that its arrival would be delayed until there is agreement on the scope of its activities and its composition, Israeli officials said. Israel charges that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan went back on understandings with Israel over the mission. Israel wants the inquiry to concentrate on the Palestinian terror infrastructure in the camp and demands that team members have expertise in terrorism. The Palestinians have accused Israel of carrying out a massacre in the camp, a charge vehemently denied by Israel, which says several dozen Palestinian were killed in a fierce battle, most of them gunmen. Israel's military offensive against Palestinian militants began March 29, with Israeli troops taking over six of eight Palestinian towns in the West Bank -- with the exception of Hebron and the desert oasis of Jericho. The campaign wound down last week, with troops remaining only in Ramallah and Bethlehem.