Israel scales back demands for completing pullback from West Bank towns

By MARK LAVIE
Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – After pulling troops and tanks out of Bethlehem, Israeli officials said Monday the army will leave the other Palestinian areas it occupied almost two weeks ago if a cease-fire is maintained – scaling back earlier demands.

Israeli officials said they did not expect the pullback from parts of four other West Bank towns – Tulkarem, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Jenin – before Tuesday, however.

Palestinians said the pullouts should be carried out unconditionally, and the United States kept up its pressure to end the operation, which is Israel's most intensive in 13 months of fighting.

Due to the uncertainty, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon may postpone a visit to the United States planned for next week, said aide Raanan Gissin. "We have informed the Americans that there may be a delay because of the security situation," he said.

Israeli troops and tanks started moving into West Bank towns after the Oct. 17 assassination of ultranationalist Cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi by assailants who ambushed him outside his hotel room in Jerusalem.

Responsibility for the assassination was claimed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as revenge for Israel's Aug. 27 killing of its leader Mustafa Zibri, accused of plotting attacks against Israelis.

Israel originally demanded the extradition of Zeevi's killers and the arrests of scores of other wanted militants. The Palestinians said they had outlawed the military wings of the PFLP and other rogue groups and had made numerous arrests – but flatly rejected the extradition demand.

Israeli troops pulled out of Bethlehem and nearby Beit Jalla late Sunday, ending a 10-day occupation they said was aimed at finding Zeevi's killers and stopping Palestinian gunfire at a nearby Jewish neighborhood in a part of Jerusalem claimed by both sides.

Earlier Sunday, two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop in the northern Israeli town of Hadera, killing four women, before police shot and killed the attackers.

The Islamic Jihad militant group took responsibility, but Palestinians said the two were also members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's police force.

Also Sunday, Palestinian gunmen killed a soldier in a shooting in Israel near the West Bank border. The Al-Aqsa Brigade associated with Arafat's Fatah movement claimed responsibility.

In 13 months of fighting, 730 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 191 on the Israeli side.

The United States has been making statements almost daily calling for Israel to pull its troops out of Palestinian areas. The United States is concerned that the fighting could endanger the brittle support among moderate Arabs for its operation against terror suspect Osama bin Laden and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, prominent Israelis and Palestinians signed a statement published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz Monday which called for an immediate Israeli pullout from the Palestinian autonomous zones and a return to peace talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state in the entire West Bank and Gaza.

"The window of opportunity created (after) Sept. 11 is in danger," said the statement, whose signatories included Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed-Rabbo and former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin. "Despite the past year's violence, we still believe a peace agreement can be reached in the near future."

AP-WS-10-29-01 1410EST