Israeli soldiers left the West Bank city of Tulkarem Tuesday afternoon after carrying out operations there during the day, Israel Radio reported.
The Israeli army arrested 40 Palestinians as part of what it described “a bid to thwart terror attacks.” Israel’s Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said that two Palestinians planned to carry out suicide attacks.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops seriously wounded a Palestinian man in Bethlehem Tuesday evening following a chase through this West Bank city.
In the Palestinian village of Tekoa in the West Bank, undercover Israeli troops arrested three Palestinians.
Nativity Church
Efforts to end the 36-day-old armed standoff at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity stalled on Tuesday when Italy refused to accept 13 Palestinians holed up inside the compound.
With the United States desperate to see an end to this affair, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell twice called Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, to pressure him into accepting the Palestinians onto Italian soil.
There were mixed messages from Rome Tuesday, with an early official statement saying that "the possibility of receiving Palestinian citizens in Italy has never been raised (officially) and therefore at the current state of affairs it cannot be considered."
This statement confirmed what a senior government official had told Reuters earlier -- Italy was bitter that it had been kept in the dark by the United States and Britain and felt it had been steamrollered into playing a part.
"We were treated in an arrogant and intolerable way," the official said. There was no word of any other country willing to step in and accept the 13 Palestinians.
Later, however, Italy’s Defense Minister Antonio Martino said his country would consider hosting the Palestinians, but that several issues needed still to be resolved. Foreign Ministry officials said they included how long the Palestinians would stay and what the terms of their confinement would be - if any. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
