Palestinians delay summit to protest raid

JERUSALEM - To protest a deadly raid on a Gaza refugee camp, Palestinian officials said Wednesday that they would postpone efforts to arrange a summit with Israel.

Meanwhile, officials said Israel's government has modified construction of its West Bank security barrier in a move that could lay out its route sooner than previously planned. The decision could bring more international criticism of the contentious project.

Israel said it entered the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza on Tuesday morning to search for weapons-smuggling tunnels.

The troops pulled out a day later, leaving homes and streets damaged and one tunnel destroyed. The raid was marked by heavy fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants.

Israeli and Palestinian officials have been trying to arrange a meeting between their prime ministers since Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia formed a new government in November.

Officials hoped to hold the summit this week. But Qureia aide Hassan Abu Libdeh canceled a preparatory meeting planned Wednesday with Dov Weisglass, the director of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, in response to the Rafah incursion, according to Palestinian officials.

"When you have (so many) Palestinians killed in one day it is very difficult to hold a meeting on the same day as the funerals," said Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat.

Palestinians have said one issue they want addressed in the meeting is the barrier. Its path would cross deep into parts of the West Bank, where Palestinians want to establish an independent state.

The Associated Press, quoting unnamed officials close to the project, reported that Israel's government recently changed its approach to building the barrier. Contractors have been ordered to build all structures simultaneously, not section by section.

Although the target date for completion remains 2005, the entire route of the barrier would be at least partly built much sooner, the AP reported, quoting the unnamed sources. About 100 miles of the 450-mile barrier have been completed.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank - On Christmas Eve, thousands of people crowded into Manger Square as dusk settled over the town where Jesus was born. There were bursts of laughter, an occasional cheer and oddly, the wheezing sounds of a local bagpipe band marching through the town. But the revelry was just a thin mask for despair.

There are few tourists or pilgrims. Most shops are closed. Unemployment is 65 percent. Palestinians run the town, but three Israeli army checkpoints control entry and exit. With the exception of 5,700 residents who were recently given permission by Israeli authorities to leave and return each day for work, most of Bethlehem's 45,000 people have been confined there since the latest Palestinian uprising began in 2000.

"We feel like we're in prison, in a cage. I was last able to leave briefly two years ago," said Loay Ayyad, 28, a municipal official, as he pointed to a ridge where Israel is building a security barrier that will eventually cut through a significant chunk of the town.

Christian residents of Bethlehem say they fear that the town's sacred sites are at risk of becoming museum pieces rather than living, breathing testaments to religious faith.

At least that's the view of those who have stayed. Estimates of the number of faithful who have gone abroad since the uprising range up to 4,000. Christians are now a minority in the town of Jesus' birth.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's defense minister said Wednesday that his country would strike back with long-range missiles if Israel attacks its nuclear facilities as the Jewish state did against a nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981.

"We will strike Israel with all weapons at our disposal if the Zionist regime ventures to do so," Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said in comments carried by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

He said Iran's long-range Shahab-3 missile, which has a range of about 810 miles, would be one of the weapons used. Israel is about 600 miles west of Iran.

In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed an Iraqi reactor under construction at Osirak, which Israel suspected would be used to produce nuclear weapons.

Both Israel and the United States believe that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, but Tehran says its nuclear program is to produce energy as its oil resources decline.

- Information from Cox News Service was used in this report.

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