Back Into Bethlehem

Israeli troops went into Bethlehem again, only two weeks after the siege of the Church of the nativity ended. No word on how long they were to stay. Meantime a newspaper says intense debate within the administration is stalling U.S. Mideast policy.

Israeli troops in armored personnel carriers rolled into the Palestinian city of Bethlehem on Saturday night and surrounded the house of an Islamic militant, Palestinian witnesses and Israeli military sources said.

The action took place only two weeks after the army lifted a siege of Palestinian militants trapped inside the Church of the Nativity.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops fired tank shells and machine guns, killing a Palestinian woman and her 13-year-old daughter who were working in a field, Palestinian witnesses and doctors said. The army said the two were in a prohibited area, near Gaza's eastern border fence with Israel.

Meanwhile, an intense debate among President Bush and his top advisers over whether to press for the removal of Yasir Arafat as the leader of the Palestinian Authority has effectively frozen the nation's Middle East policy, according to some administration officials cited by The New York Times on its Web site on Saturday.

It has also prompted George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, to delay his mission to the region until the policy is worked out, the Times says.

According to the newspaper's Web site, Mr. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell have said for more than two weeks that Tenet will go to the Middle East to work to restructure Palestinian security forces after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank. But no date was set and, until now, there was no coherent explanation for the delay.

In the interim, the White House has decided to send William Burns, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, to the region. He is expected to leave early next week for Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian territories, the Times reports.

But two U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Saturday that
both Tenet and Burns are expected to go to the region shortly, with
final word on their departure due from Bush after his return to the
White House late Tuesday.

The president tried to settle the issue of Arafat's leadership in two meetings of his principal advisers before he left for Moscow on Wednesday, administration officials told the Times, and Mr. Bush took part in the second meeting.

Lengthy discussions failed to resolve the question of whether the U.S. is prepared to accept Arafat based on his pledge to undertake extensive changes, intended to tighten security, end corruption and broaden the Palestinian leadership, the Times reports.

At the same time, given the current political unrest in the Palestinian territories that has led to strong criticism of Arafat among Palestinians, the delay gives the administration time to assess the political challenges that Mr. Arafat is beginning to face at home, the Times explained.

"The Americans are watching the situation," the Tims quotes a senior Arab foreign policy adviser whose government has been in close contact with Powell as saying. "And we do not feel they are off course. The most important thing going on right now is the dialogue among the Palestinians themselves.

"Arafat is admitting mistakes and he is reassessing how to be a better Arafat if he wants to stay," the adviser told the Times.

In Bethlehem, the troops seized much of the city, imposed a curfew and surrounded the home of Muhammed Shehade, a local leader of the Islamic Jihad group, which has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings.

Palestinian residents heard explosions coming from the area around Shehade's house, but there were no immediate reports on casualties.

Palestinian police said Israeli troops were searching houses within 660 feet of Manger Square, site of the Nativity church.

There was no word on how long the army was likely to stay in Bethlehem, just south of Jerusalem. However, it was not expected to be for long.

"We will never be controlled by Israeli policy and condemn this renewed incursion against Bethlehem, but we ask the people of Bethlehem to be careful," the city's governor Muhammad al-Madani told Reuters.

Israel completed a major military sweep through the West Bank several weeks ago, but the army continues to carry out almost daily raids in pursuit of suspected militants. Most of the incursions last a day or two at most, and in some cases, only hours.

Israeli troops occupied Bethlehem for more than six weeks in April and early May, surrounding Palestinian gunmen who holed up in the Nativity church, the traditional site of Jesus' birth. The standoff ended when 13 gunmen were sent into exile and 26 to Gaza.

In the Gaza shooting, the army said soldiers fired on two "suspicious figures" because they were in an area off-limits to Palestinians and were moving toward the fence, military sources said.

Palestinians have attempted to launch attacks in the area seven times in the past month, the sources said.

Marwan Abu Said, a Palestinian witness and a relative of those shot, said the soldiers fired from three tanks patrolling the border, next to the flat, open field. He said he was not aware of any provocation that prompted the fire.

Kamla Abu Said, 42, was killed, along with her daughter, Amna, 13, according to Dr. Ahmed Rabah at the Deir al-Balah hospital. Abu Said's 15 year-old niece was lightly injured.

In the northern West Bank, meanwhile, Israeli troops stopped a taxi and arrested a 16-year-old Palestinian boy with an explosives belt strapped to his waist, on an apparent suicide mission, the army said.

The troops set up a "surprise roadblock," and asked the four Palestinians in the taxi to get out and lift their shirts - a now common practice designed to check for would-be bombers wearing explosives.

When the 16-year-old lifted his shirt to expose the explosives, the army seized all four, near the village of Sanur. The belt was removed from the youth and blown up in a controlled explosion, the army said.

Saturday's incident came just three days after another 16-year-old, Issa Bdeir, carried out a suicide bombing that killed two Israelis on Wednesday night just south of Tel Aviv. He was the youngest of the more than 60 bombers who have struck during the current conflict.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said that the Israeli security forces have "foiled or disrupted" more than 30 attacks by Palestinian militants over the past month. The army offensive in March and April was intended to prevent such attacks, but after a brief lull, the frequency increased again in recent days.

On another West Bank road, a Palestinian woman in labor said she was held up by soldiers for 30 minutes at a roadblock, where she gave birth to a baby that died a short while later after she reached a hospital in Bethlehem. The Israeli military disputed the woman's account, saying she was allowed to pass without delay.

In another development Saturday, Israel's army pulled out of the Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank, ending a two-day incursion that uncovered guns and explosives and led to the arrests of about 25 Palestinians suspects, the army said.

But only hours later, the troops went back into the camp and the town of Tulkarem, Palestinian witnesses said. Tulkarem is just inside the West Bank and Palestinian militants have launched many attacks from the town.