A rchive Date
[ 24-03-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Israel ]
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[http://canoe.ca/CNEWSTopNews/mideast_mar18-ap.html
Israel pulls troops out of Bethlehem
Monday March 18, 2002
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli troops pulled out of Bethlehem and a neighbouring village early Tuesday, edging Israel and the Palestinians closer to a cease-fire in the 18-month-old Mideast conflict.
The pullback came during a visit by U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, who was winding up a tour of the region. Cheney called on both sides to end the conflict, concerned that Palestinian-Israeli violence would disrupt the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
Cheney, along with U.S. mediator Anthony Zinni, held talks Monday afternoon with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He has set aside time to meet with the Palestinian side, aides said, although no specific meetings have been scheduled.
The diplomatic effort follows one of the bloodiest periods in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since the current round began in September 2000, 1208 Palestinians and 352 Israelis have been killed.
Soldiers in Bethlehem dismantled rooftop positions, then armoured personnel carriers and tanks rumbled along the main roads of Bethlehem and Beit Jalla into Israeli-controlled territory.
However, Israeli troops remained in the village of El-Khader, next to Bethlehem, and enforced a curfew in the Aida refugee camp adjacent to the West Bank town, which Christian tradition says is the birthplace of Jesus.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot and killed an armed Palestinian near a crossing point between Gaza and Israel on Monday, the military said. Also, Palestinians fired two Qassam rockets into Israel from northern Gaza. Palestinians said Israel sent armoured vehicles to search farms afterward.
Israeli soldiers tracked down and arrested two Palestinians who had infiltrated into northern Israel, allegedly planning a terror attack, the military said.
Israeli and Palestinian security officials have met three times in less than 24 hours to discuss the problem.
"The meeting today was tough and serious, but positive," said Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinian security chief in the West Bank. "The Israelis are committed to withdrawing from all (Palestinian-run) areas in the West Bank."
Israeli forces entered more than a half-dozen Palestinian towns and cities this month in a search for militants. They have withdrawn from all the Palestinian population centres.
It was not clear whether Israeli troops would remain in a few Palestinian-run areas of the Gaza Strip - a key road and some farmland - which they also seized in recent months. It was apparently not part of Monday's emerging deal.
An Israeli pullout meets the most immediate Palestinian demand for a ceasefire.
Zinni, who has been shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, is trying to get the two sides to implement a ceasefire deal brokered last year by CIA chief George Tenet.
Both sides previously endorsed the plan, which calls on the Israelis to pull back troops to where they were before the fighting began in September 2000. The Palestinians must prevent attacks against Israel and - in what may prove to be a huge undertaking - collect weapons from militants.
Several previous ceasefire efforts have failed, and even if the two sides strike a deal there's no guarantee it will hold - members of Islamic Jihad vowed Monday to keep up their attacks, something that would bring certain retaliation from Israel.
Many Palestinian militants say the only way they can win concessions from Israel is by fighting. And many Israelis believe Sharon should take an even tougher line and step up military operations against the Palestinians.
Both sides see Cheney's presence as an incentive to reach a truce.
Cheney said he was seeking to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks with an aim to reaching a full-blown peace treaty based on UN resolutions. The vice president said both sides would have to take steps to end violence and improve the atmosphere for peace talks.
"We continue to call upon Chairman (Yasser) Arafat to live up to his commitment to renounce once and for all the use of violence as a political weapon and to observe a 100 per cent effort to stamp out terrorists," Cheney said.
"In that same spirit, I will be talking to Prime Minister Sharon about the steps that Israel can take to alleviate the devastating economic hardships being experienced by innocent Palestinian men, women and children," he added.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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