http://www.boston.com/dailynews/302/world/Israel_pulls_out_of_two_West_B:.shtml

Israel pulls out of two West Bank towns, ending incursion that angered United States

By Ibrahim Hazboun, Associated Press, 10/29/2001 04:24

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) Israel will pull out of four more West Bank towns if the Palestinians pledge to stop attacks, Israel's defense minister said Monday, after Israel withdrew from Bethlehem and nearby Beit Jalla.

The pullback came despite two Palestinians shooting attacks Sunday in which five Israelis four women and a soldier were killed.

Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers rumbled out of Bethlehem and nearby Beit Jalla in an operation completed early Monday, the army said in a statement.

Palestinian security officials said they were patrolling positions that Israeli forces evacuated, keeping the peace as called for by a U.S.-brokered withdrawal agreement.

The Israelis said it was a test case for withdrawals from parts of four other towns Israel occupied starting Oct. 18: Jenin, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Tulkarem.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Israel Army Radio the pullbacks could proceed ''the moment anyone gets up on the Palestinian side and says they take responsibility for security.''

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said that before further pullbacks, the Palestinians must arrest militants, outlaw rogue groups violating a cease-fire and turn over the assassins of ultranationalist Israeli Cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi, gunned down in Jerusalem on Oct. 17.

The differences reflect disagreements in Sharon's Cabinet. Representatives of Ben-Eliezer's moderate Labor party are growing uncomfortable with Israel's largest-scale incursion into Palestinian territory in seven years, while Sharon's hard-line allies are calling for even stiffer action.

The attacks might also delay the pullbacks, since they apparently originated from Jenin and Qalqilya, two of the towns under Israeli control.

In Hadera, four Israeli women were shot dead Sunday by two militants from the Jenin refugee camp. There were members of the Palestinian security forces and also the militant Islamic Jihad, Palestinians said.

The attackers, who were killed by Israeli police, were identified by the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad as Youssef Sweitat, 22 and Nidal al-Jabali, 23. A videotaped message claiming responsibility for the attack showed the men standing in front of a banner with Islamic Jihad written on it and a picture of a 10-year-old Palestinian girl killed last week.

Sweitat was a police detective in Jenin who joined Islamic Jihad after Israeli-Palestinian fighting erupted 13 months ago, and al-Jabali joined the Palestinian security forces in Jenin four months ago, said Mohammed Balas, 30, an acquaintance and resident of the camp where both men lived.

Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz said it was worrisome that the two gunmen belonged to the Palestinian security forces.

It was the second shooting incident Sunday. Earlier, gunmen shot and killed an Israeli soldier in a drive-by shooting in Israel near the West Bank. An anonymous caller told The Associated Press that the Al Aqsa Brigade, affiliated with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, attacked an Israeli military vehicle, revenge for Saturday's killing of a Fatah activist in nearby Tulkarem.

The Palestinian leadership condemned the attack in Hadera. In a statement, it said it had ordered security commanders to pursue those who planned it and bring them to trial ''for violating the cease-fire and the Palestinian commitments and the Palestinian national interest.''

Despite the attacks, Israel decided to go ahead with the Bethlehem pullout because ''the Palestinians made some arrests and moved in to take over security operations late Sunday,'' said Raanan Gissin, an aide to Sharon.

''The occupation has ended in Bethlehem and Beit Jalla and I hope it will be ended also in the rest of the Palestinian cities,'' Salim el-Alam, 32, said from outside his Bethlehem home as he watched an armored personnel carrier head out of town. ''I am very glad.''

The United States and other countries strongly criticized the incursions and demanded a pullback, particularly from Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus. The Bush administration is concerned that the upsurge in violence could interfere with efforts to add moderate Arab nations to its anti-terrorism coalition.

Since fighting erupted more than a year ago, 730 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 191 on the Israeli side.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001