Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 8, 2001
RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Israel ended its three-week occupation of Ramallah, the Palestinian government and commercial center, Wednesday as part of a gradual pullout from parts of six West Bank towns seized last month.
Elsewhere, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including a West Bank man accused in the death of a Jewish settler. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the man was responsible for several deadly attacks on Israelis and was "eliminated" by undercover troops.
In the Ramallah pullout, Israeli tanks, jeeps and armored personnel carriers drove out of the northern neighborhoods before dawn. The convoy passed several Palestinians, who stood in the heavy rain holding a sign with an arrow and the words: "Tel Aviv that way, and stay out."
During the incursion, Israel told residents of the northern neighborhoods they were prohibited from leaving their homes, but many defied the curfew to get to jobs and schools.
The parts of Ramallah that Israel occupied included five ministries of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority. Nabil Amr, the Palestinian minister of parliamen-tary affairs, returned to his office for the first time in three weeks Wednesday, inspecting shrapnel damage in the walls and a broken office window. "They were thinking they would break our spirit if they occupied some parts of Ramallah," Amr said.
The Palestinian Authority decided Wednesday to ask Arab and other donor countries and the World Bank to help repair damage caused by Israeli forces in the Palestinian cities, the authority said in a news release.
Israeli Cabinet Minister Dan Naveh said the Palestinian Authority has done nothing to prevent attacks on Israelis by Palestinian militants and described the raids on the West Bank towns as a restrained reaction to "the lack of Palestinian responsibility."
"Are we supposed to send Israeli jets to bomb Ramallah indiscriminately? Of course not. But what are we supposed to do? To leave our people with no defense?" Naveh said. "We have no other choice but to take these minimum measures."
The United States has repeatedly demanded that Israel withdraw from the towns and refrain from sending its forces into Palestinian areas. The Bush administration is concerned that Mideast violence will erode support for its antiterror campaign and its war against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday in Washington that he is pleased Israel has withdrawn its forces from Ramallah and that he hopes for prompt pullbacks from other Palestinian towns, as well.
The Palestinian killed in the Israeli raid of the West Bank town of Yatta was Issa Dababsheh, 50, a suspect in the killing of a Jewish settler in the area several years ago.
An Israeli army commander in the area, Col. Dror Weinberg, said that the plan was to arrest Dababsheh but that troops fired after he pulled a pistol.
Palestinian officials alleged Dababsheh was killed without provocation in a targeted attack. Two bystanders, including one of Dababsheh's sons, were wounded.
In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian was killed and five were wounded by Israeli fire near the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim, Palestinian security officials said. The Israeli army said it returned fire after three mortar shells hit the settlement.
In more than 13 months of fighting, 744 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 195 on the Israeli side.
Israeli forces moved into parts of six West Bank towns after the Oct. 17 assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. Militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said they killed Zeevi to avenge Israel's killing of PFLP leader Mustafa Zibri.
With the completion of the Israeli pullback from Ramallah, parts of two of the six towns -- Tulkarem and Jenin -- remained under Israeli control.
The incursions were the largest Israeli military action in the West Bank since Israel started turning over territory to the Palestinians in 1994 under interim peace accords.
JERUSALEM -- Israeli lawmakers stripped an Arab colleague of his parliamentary immunity Wednesday, setting the stage for him to be tried on charges of supporting terrorist organizations and arranging illegal trips to Syria.
While the Knesset has voted to remove a member's immunity in the past, this was the first time it was done to prosecute a lawmaker for words, not deeds.
Attorney General Eliyakim Rubinstein is seeking to charge Bishara, a 45-year-old Christian from Nazareth, for remarks he made during a June trip to Syria calling on Arabs abroad to wage popular resistance against Israel. Jerusalem and Damascus are officially in a state of war.
-- Information from the Los Angeles Times and Knight Ridder Newspapers was used in this report.