Arafat's statement earns meeting with Powell

JERUSALEM -- Struggling to salvage his peace mission, Secretary of State Colin Powell will press Yasser Arafat when they meet today to take "effective action" to end Palestinian attacks against Israel.

The meeting comes after the Palestinian leader issued a statement condemning violence against Israeli civilians, and "especially the last operation in Jerusalem." That reference was to a suicide bombing in Jerusalem's central market on Friday that killed six people.

A meeting between Powell and Arafat is scheduled for today at the Palestinian leader's battered headquarters in Ramallah. At its conclusion, Powell may reconvene with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem, a spokesman said. Sharon has described Powell's plan to meet Arafat as a "tragic mistake."

"We strongly condemn the violent operations that target Israeli civilians, especially the recent operation in Jerusalem," Arafat's statement said. It was issued in Arabic and read on Palestinian radio and television.

A spokesman for the militant Hamas organization said it was not bound by Arafat's statement and its attacks on Israeli civilians would continue. There was no response from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a group linked to Arafat's Fatah movement that claimed responsibility for Friday's bombing.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces remain in four main West Bank towns -- Nablus, Jenin, Bethlehem and Ramallah -- and the army announced it had entered six additional villages, arresting 40 suspected militants and facing sporadic resistance.

After the bombing in Jerusalem, Powell canceled a Saturday meeting with Arafat, and the secretary of state demanded that Arafat issue a strong, public condemnation of terrorism -- a step the Palestinian had refused to take as violence escalated on both sides.

That changed Saturday, at least to some extent.

"With this as a start, we can go down and work with Chairman Arafat to build on this, to try to accomplish what we want to accomplish, which is to take action to bring terror and violence to an end," said Richard Boucher, a State Department spokesman traveling with Powell.

But Boucher emphasized that words were not enough.

"There have been other statements from Chairman Arafat," he said. "What we've always said is these must be followed by effective action."

Earlier Saturday, possibly as part of a diplomatic understanding, Powell urged Israeli leaders to avoid "excessive use of force" and he raised special concerns about Israeli operations in the West Bank town of Jenin, which have been widely criticized on humanitarian grounds.

Boucher said Powell consulted by phone Friday and Saturday with Jordan's King Abdullah II and the foreign ministers of Egypt, Russia and Spain.

In his statement, Arafat also blasted Israel's military offensive on the West Bank. Now in its third week, the campaign has provoked growing worldwide condemnation on humanitarian and other grounds.

"We also strongly condemn the massacres the Israeli occupation forces have been committing for the past two weeks against the Palestinian civilians and refugees in the city of Nablus and Jenin camp, against the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and in other Palestinian areas," Arafat said.

In recent weeks, Israeli officials have released captured documents that they said conclusively link Arafat to terrorists. On Saturday, they said they simply do not believe him.

"If he is really going to change his direction, he needs to speak directly with his mouth to his own people and change his whole style of leadership," said Noam Katz, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry. "If this is an isolated condemnation to facilitate a meeting or as a result of pressure, it is not enough."

Palestinians charge that Israel has committed a "massacre" in Jenin, killing as many as 500 people. Israel denies that, placing the death toll at 100 to 200.

At the Jenin Hospital, Dr. Mahmoud Abu Salayeh, said conditions in the camp were so bad that people were drinking untreated water from gullies in the streets.

Tanks and armored personnel carriers rumbled through the torn up streets Saturday, but few Palestinians were visible. Some have managed to flee to nearby Jenin city, while hundreds of men in the camp have been arrested by the Israelis.

Israeli troops have largely closed off the camp, where 23 Israeli soldiers were killed during fighting. It remains unclear what happened to the bodies of the Palestinian dead in the camp.

In a surprise intervention, the Israeli Supreme Court on Saturday ordered the army not to remove the bodies of Palestinians from the camp until the court held a hearing today. Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli Arab legislator, argued that removing bodies from the city was a violation of international law.

Many relief organizations have expressed fears that a humanitarian crisis is growing on the West Bank, and more evidence of that emerged from Nablus. Film from that city showed rescuers pulling people, buried alive for days, out of crushed buildings.

In recent days, huge Israeli bulldozers have cleared paths through several Palestinian cities, in some cases leveling entire blocks of buildings.

Powell met Saturday with Christian religious leaders and the directors of some relief agencies.

"We are particularly concerned at the humanitarian situation in Jenin," he said.

Powell also announced that the United States would contribute an additional $30-million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. It already contributes $80-million annually to that organization.

In other developments:

On Israel's northern border, Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas fired antitank missiles, mortar rounds and machine guns at Israeli positions, according to the Israeli army and local residents. Israel responded by shelling Hezbollah positions. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

In the village of Jamain, a wanted leader of the militant group Hamas was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers Saturday, residents said. Ahmed Ali, 39, was killed in an olive grove outside the village. The Israeli army did not immediately comment.

-- Information from the New York Times, Knight Ridder and Associated Press was used in this report.

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