An Israeli officer was killed and three soldiers were injured when two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at an army tent encampment at around 2 A.M. Tuesday in the Jordan Valley, near the settlement of Mehula.
Both Palestinian gunmen were shot dead by soldiers in the ensuing firefight.
One of the injured soldiers was in moderate condition, while the other two sustained light wounds.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops pulled out of Bethlehem and from the northern Gaza Strip early Tuesday. The pullback came after U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived to bolster the attempts of U.S. mediator Anthony Zinni, and the talks he held Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Pull Out
Israel pulled back after midnight from the West Bank city of Bethlehem and neighboring Beit Jalla, El-Khader and the Aida refugee camp.
The troops moved out of a hotel on the northern edge of Bethlehem that they used as a makeshift headquarters during an arrest campaign of suspected Palestinian activists.
Israeli tanks then withdrew from the nearby self-rule area of Beit Jala, as Palestinian policemen moved in.
The Palestinians demanded at security talks Monday afternoon that Israel pull out of all their territory before a cease-fire could be declared. Israeli military officials said that apart from Bethlehem, which troops re-entered late Sunday, the army still also had forces in the self-rule towns of Jenin and Nablus.
Palestinian West Bank security chief Jibril Rajoub said the pullback from Bethlehem was not enough. He added Israel must complete its withdrawal from two other cities, Tulkarem and Qalqilya. Israel said it had pulled out of the two towns last week.
Also, Rajoub told The Associated Press that the Israelis must declare an "immediate end to their aggression in all its forms, including house demolition, closures, and assassination," and promise political negotiations as well as military talks.
"The meeting today was tough and serious, but positive," Rajoub said. "The Israelis are committed to withdrawing from all (Palestinian-run) areas in the West Bank."
It was not clear whether Israeli forces would remain in a few Palestinian-run areas of the Gaza Strip which they also seized in recent months, and this was apparently not part of the emerging deal.
In Washington, the State Department kept up pressure on Israel for a full withdrawal from the Palestinian territories. "We continue to expect a complete withdrawal from all remaining Palestinian-controlled areas that Israeli defense forces entered in recent weeks," spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.
For his part, Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo expressed hope that a truce might be in sight to halt carnage since September 2000. "We hope to declare a ceasefire once we, the Americans and the Israelis agree to a security work-plan," Abed Rabbo said.
"The senior (political) committee will meet soon to agree to a parallel plan to implement the rest of the Mitchell recommendations and to discuss how to get back into permanent status negotiations," Abed Rabbo said.
Violence Continues
In violence Monday, Israeli troops shot and killed an armed Palestinian near a crossing point between Gaza and Israel, the Israeli military said. A 52-year-old Palestinian was killed by tank fire when Israeli forces moved toward Dir al-Balah in central Gaza, Palestinian doctors said.
In another incident, Israeli soldiers spotted five Palestinians trying to penetrate the Gush Katif settlement bloc from the north. After a chase by Israeli troops, which lasted several hours, two of the Palestinians were killed, while the others escaped. Kalashnikov rifles and hand-grenades were found near the bodies of the two dead Palestinians.
Additionally, two home-made Qassam 2 rockets manufactured by Hamas group fired from the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel near the coastal town of Ashkelon, but fell harmlessly on farmland. After this rocket attack, Israeli tanks and bulldozers advanced into the Gaza village of Al-Qarara in an incursion that left five Palestinians wounded and during which two homes were demolished, Palestinian security sources told AFP.
In the West Bank, army gunfire killed a 22-year-old Palestinian inside his store near the town of Hebron, Palestinian security sources said.
Meanwhile, supporters of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization vowed to keep up attacks. At a rally of about 600 people in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, demonstrators chanted "Death to Israel. Death to America," and '"No' to surrender, 'yes' to holy war."
"Our fighters will terrorize our enemy everywhere by all means," one masked activist told the crowd. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
