Breakthrough In Bethlehem
Palestinian officials said early Monday that a deal had been struck to end a standoff at the Church of the Nativity as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrived in the United States for talks with President Bush.
More than 200 Palestinians, including about 30 gunmen, fled into the church April 2, ahead of invading Israeli forces, at the height of Israel's large-scale incursion into the West Bank.
"The deal consists of six to eight people to be (deported to) Italy and more than 30 to Gaza," said Hassan Abed Rabbo, a senior in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah party. About 100 people are still in the church, including clerics and some protesters. Palestinians said the rest would be freed from the church, which marks the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Yarden Vatikay denied that a deal had been reached. "There is no agreement yet,'" he told The Associated Press. "They are negotiating our demands for people to be deported." He would not comment on the details under discussion.
"The negotiations are still continuing and they're going extremely well, but the people are not expected to come out of the church tonight (Sunday night). They are expected to come out tomorrow (Monday)," an Israeli military spokeswoman told Reuters.
Palestinian officials said the accord was worked out by the Vatican and the European Union. On Wednesday, Arafat left his office after 34 days of captivity under a U.S.-sponsored compromise that placed six Palestinian militants in a jail guarded by U.S. and British guards.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrived in the United States on Sunday to deliver his idea of peace to President George W. Bush after Israel's crushing military offensive against Palestinian targets in the West Bank.
In more bloodshed in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian woman and her two children Sunday near the West Bank town of Jenin after a bomb went off under an army tank, an Israeli military source and a Palestinian rescue official said.
Israeli troops also killed a 9-year-old Palestinian boy when they opened fire on the refugee camp in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, according to Dr. Abu Shaker, director of the local hospital. The boy, Tamer Abu Sarrieh, was shot twice in the chest. An 18-year-old man was lightly injured.
The killings outside an army camp south of the town of Jenin occurred after a large bomb went off underneath an Israeli tank, the Israeli military source said. The soldiers saw suspicious figures in a nearby grove and fired on them, killing the woman and her two children, the source said.
Palestinian rescue officials said the bodies of the mother and the children, ages three and four, were found in a field near a tank with its track torn off. They had been shot in the heads or upper bodies, said rescue official Haitham Abu Mouas.
The Israeli Defense Force expressed sorrow over the incident, the Israeli official said.
Sharon intends to present a detailed peace plan to President Bush and also try to have Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat sidelined from the political process, Israeli news reports and officials said.
"It is imperative to build a Palestinian Authority ... a body with which it will be possible to talk in the future, something which does not exist today," Sharon adviser Zalman Shoval told Israel's army radio Sunday.
Bethlehem is the only Palestinian city still occupied by Israeli troops in the wake of Israel's military offensive in the West Bank last month, but Israeli raids on Palestinian cities and towns continued.
Early Sunday, Israeli forces moved into the Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank. Israel Radio reported that about 20 tanks were involved. Israeli military officials said the operation was limited, but gave no further details.
Advisers to Sharon said that in Washington, he will propose that terms for a long-term interim deal with the Palestinians be worked out at a regional conference attended by Israel, the Palestinians, the United States and moderate Arab states.
Arab officials were cautious about committing themselves to the U.S.-sponsored conference, with hard-line Syria indicating it would not attend, and Egypt, a key Arab moderate, saying Israel had to withdraw first from Palestinian lands it recently occupied.
Plans for the peace conference were announced last week by Secretary of State Colin Powell, with the backing of the United Nations, the European Union and Russia. U.S. officials have suggested the conference will be held in June.
Israel radio reported Saturday that the conference would take place in Turkey. A Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman said Turkey had offered to hold it but was not aware the invitation had been accepted. State Department spokesman Frederick Jones said that to his knowledge the site had not been set, and Israeli officials were not available for comment.
The gathering would be held at the level of foreign ministers, avoiding the issue of Arafat's attendance. Sharon, who has branded Arafat a terrorist and has said he does not consider him a partner in negotiations, planned to give Bush a 100-page report linking Arafat to terror attacks against Israel, Sharon's office said Saturday.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher met with Arafat in Ramallah Sunday, becoming the first Arab official to sit down with him since the standoff ended Thursday.
"We are here declaring that we support President Arafat and the Palestinian people in their mission to achieve their goals," Maher said.
Egypt will continue working with Arafat, the United States and others to help find a breakthrough to the situation, he said.
Arafat emerged Thursday from 34 days of virtual house arrest under a U.S.-brokered deal that saw six Palestinians — including four connected to the slaying of the Israeli tourism minister — jailed in a West Bank town under British and U.S. supervision.
Arab news reports had suggested that Arafat would be visiting Egypt soon, but Israeli officials have hinted that if he leaves the Palestinian territories, any new wave of suicide attacks would prompt them to block his return.