Israeli tanks moved deeper into the West Bank's biggest city on Thursday as the EU and the U.S. intensify their diplomatic efforts to craft a cease-fire agreement.
EU
EU foreign ministers dispatched two senior envoys to Israel and Palestinian territories, but Israeli political sources said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had no intention of letting them meet besieged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, whose country heads the EU's rotating presidency, said before he and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana left for Tel Aviv that they would press for an immediate cease-fire, an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities and a return to peace negotiations.
Asked if the mission would be considered a failure if there was no Arafat meeting, the Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said "we would not go that far."
"It would also be seen as a failure for the Israelis," he added. "It's not their right to prohibit meetings with democratically elected leaders."
No Palestinian officials will meet European Union envoys on a Middle East peace mission unless they meet besieged President Yasser Arafat, two Palestinian cabinet ministers said on Thursday.
"We want the European delegation to meet President Arafat. If for any reason they do not meet the president, no Palestinian official will meet them," Local Government Minister Saeb Erekat, who is also the chief Palestinian negotiator, told Reuters.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told the official WAFA news agency that the Palestinian leadership had decided that "its only address is Arafat and no one else". "The leadership rejects any European delegation meeting with (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon if they do not meet President Arafat," he added.
Zinni
In talks Thursday with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, U.S. special Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni is demanding that Israel allow him to meet with Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. Zinni is to try to persuade Arafat to accept the envoy's recent proposal for a cease-fire and for implementation of the Tenet truce outline.
Israel Radio reported that Peres was in favor of allowing Zinni access to Arafat, but that key rightists were opposed. According to the Israeli site Ynet, Sharon might allow Zinni to meet Arafat.
At the United Nations, Arab nations vowed late on Wednesday to push to a Security Council vote a draft resolution demanding the withdrawal of Israeli forces from West Bank towns. The measure appeared to be unacceptable to Israel's main ally, the United States, and a vote was delayed.
Clashes
Battles raged in Nablus and a nearby refugee camp. "Israeli aircraft and tanks are striking extensively and sporadically, but the Israelis don't let the ambulances and rescue teams arrive at the scene or places where people are injured or dead," Nablus governor Mahmoud al-Alloul told Reuters.
Nablus is the seventh Palestinian-ruled city in the West Bank to be seized by the Israeli army in less than a week. Israel is now in control of Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, Qalqilyah, Salfit, Tulkarem and Jenin.
A 53-year-old woman was killed in the initial Israeli thrust into Nablus, Palestinian hospital officials said.
They said at least seven people had been wounded in Nablus, including a 19-year-old man, Ahmed Tarzai, who had taken a bullet in the head and was "clinically dead."
Witnesses and security sources said Israeli tanks had reached the Palestinian Authority's offices in the city and troops were fighting their way toward the Kasbah district, where armed Palestinian had set up makeshift barricades.
Witnesses in the northern city of Jenin said Israeli tanks were shelling a nearby refugee camp, destroying at least two houses and starting fires. Five wounded members of one family were brought to hospital. Helicopter gunships were also firing at the camp.
In Bethlehem, Israeli troops fired a pepper gas canister at journalists trying to reach the Church of the Nativity on Manger Square, where a tense standoff between troops and Palestinians who entered the sanctuary on Tuesday morning continued.
On Thursday noon, witnesses told Reuters that they heard three explosions as well as machine gun fire near the church. But Israeli officials dismissed the claims as disinformation.
Military officials said that no attempt had been made to burst into the church, and that there was no plan to storm the Church of the Nativity.
Two Palestinians were killed in Thursday's fighting, including a Palestinian church caretaker who witnesses said was shot while walking to the Church of the Nativity from his home.
On Thursday, according to Palestinian sources, three Israeli soldiers were killed during gunbattles in the West Bank. The Army spokesman said three Israeli soldiers were wounded in fighting in Jenin, a fourth in Nablus and a fifth in Tulkarem. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
