Two Fatah activists that according to Isreali sources were on their way to carry out an attack in Jerusalem were killed Thursday evening by Israeli security forces at a junction east of the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Israeli sources said the two men died when their booby-trapped car exploded.
Earlier, two Palestinians, including a local Fatah leader, were killed by an Israeli helicopter gunship missile strike.
The Fatah leader, Mu'tasem Hammad, was killed by missiles that struck a workshop for building bombs at a chicken farm next to the West Bank village of Anabta, according to Israeli press reports.
Hamad was a local leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement - which has claimed responsibility for most of the Palestinian attacks on Israelis carried out in the past two months. He was considered an explosives expert and was suspected of preparing bombs for Islamic Jihad, Haaretz reported.
Another Fatah member, Atef Baltusi, was also killed in this attack.
A short time later, six Palestinians were arrested in the nearby village of Balah. Israeli troops ordered the six - all members of Fatah and Islamic Jihad - out of their explosives-laden car before blowing up the vehicle.
Earlier in the day, three Israeli soldiers were killed and two injured when a huge bomb exploded near a tank in the central Gaza Strip settlement of Netzarim.
Palestinian security officials said at least seven people including four members of PA security forces were killed in street fighting with Israeli troops early Thursday in Ramallah, the focus of the broad Israeli offensive.
Sharon
Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon issued instructions Thursday to Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer to gradually withdraw Israeli troops from Ramallah.
According to a statement from the Prime Minister's Office, Sharon instructed Ben-Eliezer to redeploy Israeli forces "with the successful completion of its operations." With this decision, the prime minister responded to U.S. calls to end Israeli operations in Ramallah prior to the arrival of U.S. peace envoy Anthony Zinni on Thursday evening.
Sharon, in response to an American request for a truce, said Wednesday that Israel was ready for a cease-fire in light of Zinni's visit, and that the ongoing Israeli operation had only a few more missions before it was complete. He added that Israel would respond if there were more Palestinian attacks.
Meanwhile, the U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni arrived in Israel and met with the Israeli prime minister and was planned to hold talks with Palestinian officials on Friday, U.S. officials said.
The United States called Thursday for a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian-ruled areas they had recently occupied, to help the work of Zinni.
"They [the Israelis] have talked about a full withdrawal and that's what we want to see," said U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "That's the kind of step that we have been urging them to take... complete withdrawal," he added.
"We have taken note of the statements they have made so far regarding redeployment of Israeli defense forces from Ramallah. We do expect a complete withdrawal from Palestinian-controlled areas, including Ramallah and the other areas the Israeli defense forces recently entered. Such a complete withdrawal would greatly facilitate the work of General Zinni," he added.
Bethlehem
In a pre-dawn battle in the West Bank city of Bethlehem Thursday, an Israeli tank shell slammed into a church in the city of Jesus' birth, and shrapnel peppered a statue of the Virgin Mary and sliced off the hands and nose, a nun told Reuters.
The church compound also houses a hospital and an orphanage. Patients at the hospital were rushed to a safer room during the fighting.
Israeli forces began moving into central Bethlehem from all directions around 1 A.M. and took control of a southern residential section of the city. Residents said soldiers were searching houses and taking up positions in buildings. Tanks were parked 300 meters from the Church of the Nativity, which Christians revere as the birthplace of Christ.
During a barrage of bullets and artillery, a tank shell punched a bowling ball-sized dent in the thick stone facade of the two-centuries-old Holy Family Church. The stone blocks were blackened and pockmarked.
The damaged Virgin Mary sculpture, with arms outstretched, remained standing on the roof beside an unlit star decoration and a flag of the Vatican. No one was injured inside the church compound.
Zinni Visit
US Secretary of State Colin Powell held telephone talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Wednesday on the eve of a mission to the region by US envoy Anthony Zinni, WAFA reported.
During the conversation, Powell told Arafat that Zinni "was coming to apply the Tenet plan and the Mitchell report," Nabil Abu Rudeina, Arafat’s aide said.
In addition, Powell told Arafat that a "Palestinian state with recognized borders was the aim of the United States," Abu Rudeina added.
In arelated development, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP Wednesday the mission of Zinni has “no hope” of succeeding while Israel continues to occupy Ramallah.
"The Israeli government's decision to reoccupy Ramallah leaves no hope of success for Zinni's mission," Erekat said.
"It is evident that (Israeli Prime Minister) Sharon is determined to destroy Zinni's efforts before they have even started," he added. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
