Troops pull out of Bethlehem, Beit Jalla

BETHLEHEM (WEST BANK), OCT. 29. Israel will pull out of four more West Bank towns if the Palestinians pledge to stop attacks, Israel's Defence Minister said on Monday, after Israel withdrew from Bethlehem and nearby Beit Jalla.

The pullback came despite two Palestinians shooting attacks on Sunday in which five Israelis - four women and a soldier - were killed. Israeli tanks and armoured 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 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 October 18: Jenin, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Tulkarem.

The Israeli Defence Minister, Mr. 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.'' The Prime Minister, Mr. Ariel Sharon, has said that before further pullbacks, the Palestinians must arrest militants, outlaw rogue groups violating a ceasefire and turn over the assassins of the ultranationalist Israeli Cabinet Minister Rehavam Zeevi, gunned down in Jerusalem on October 17. The differences reflect disagreements in Mr. Sharon's Cabinet. Representatives of Mr. Ben-Eliezer's moderate Labor party are growing uncomfortable with Israel's largest-scale incursion into Palestinian territory in seven years, while Mr. Sharon's hardline allies are calling for even stiffer action. Mr. Ben-Eliezer's spokesman, Mr. Yarden Vatikay, doubted that the pullback would resume on Monday.

He said security commanders from the two sides would meet later on Monday, and ``Israel will raise its demands at the meeting.'' 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 on 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.

It was the second shooting incident on Sunday. Earlier, gunmen shot and killed an Israeli soldier in a drive-by shooting in Israel near the West Bank.

- AP

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