Arafat no longer confined to compound, Israel says

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Israel said Monday that a breakthrough agreement had set Yasser Arafat free after five months confined to his compound, but the Palestinian leader stayed put for fear Israeli forces would storm the building and seize wanted militants inside.

Still, if the agreement sticks, one of three tense confrontations should be resolved in the coming days.

But a U.N. fact-finding to the Jenin refugee camp is stalled. Israel is effectively keeping the team from arriving, saying it fears an anti-Israel bias that will produce a highly critical report on Israel's military operation in the camp. Palestinians called on the United Nations to send the team immediately, claiming Israel is trying to cover up the killings of large numbers of civilians, something Israel strongly denies.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday that was "very urgent that we go in, find out what happened, and put all the rumors and the accusations behind us." U.N. officials said the Israeli Cabinet was expected to make a decision today. Israel is seeking changes in the team's composition and mandate.

Meanwhile, at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, an Israeli sniper killed a Palestinian militiaman when he walked into a courtyard of the compound, the army said. Talks there were deadlocked Monday on the crisis at the church, where more than 200 Palestinians are holed up inside, many of them armed.

Church talks deadlocked

Israel had rejected a Palestinian offer that 30 gunmen in the church be sent to the Gaza Strip and the Palestinians turned down an Israeli proposal that the men be tried in Israel or exiled abroad.

Late Monday, Palestinian negotiator Imad Natshe said the two sides would meet again on Tuesday, and Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Washington that he expected the standoff could end soon.

"I think there is a solution," Powell said, providing no details. U.S. and Israeli officials said privately it probably would be based on Israel's proposal to offer the terror suspects holed up in the Church of the Nativity a choice of exile or trial in Israel. "I think it will be resolved in the near future," Powell said.

And in the latest Israeli military incursion, tanks and troops poured into Hebron in search of militants, leaving nine Palestinians dead in the West Bank town of Hebron.

In Ramallah, the crisis at Arafat's headquarters appeared near conclusion, but final details were still being worked out. Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers remained parked inside Arafat's compound, and sealed off city streets for several blocks in every direction.

Israel and the Palestinians both agreed Sunday to a U.S. proposal that restores Arafat's freedom of movement, and in exchange, six wanted men inside the compound will be imprisoned in a Palestinian jail, watched over by U.S. and British officials.

Under the plan, the six would be transferred to the West Bank town of Jericho, said Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. The minister said Monday the six would be moved within 48 hours.

Assassins convicted

A makeshift Palestinian court has convicted four of the men of killing Israeli Cabinet Minister Rehavam Zeevi last October. The fifth man is the leader of the political faction that claimed responsibility for the killing and the sixth is an Arafat aide suspected of orchestrating a large arms smuggling operation.

Israel and the U.S. State Department both said Arafat was now free to go where he likes, including trips outside the Palestinian territory.

The Palestinians, however, said Arafat was not actually free and that if he tried to leave before the prisoners were transferred, Israel would seize the six men from the building.

Israel clamped down on Arafat at the beginning of December, barring him from leaving Ramallah until he handed over those accused of Zeevi's killing.

Arafat made a couple brief trips out of his compound and into the city, but worked and slept at his office building.

Israel gave its consent to ending Arafat's confinement with the understanding that the United States, in turn, would stand by Israel's side in an increasingly tense showdown with the United Nations over the fact-finding team, government officials said.

Israel's deputy defense minister, Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, said she believed "some sort of agreement was reached, some sort of deal, according to which (Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon gave up on his insistence that Arafat be isolated in his headquarters ... and we win U.S. backing concerning our reservations on the issue of the U.N. committee."

Israel has said it fears the team harbors an anti-Israel bias and has effectively kept them from arriving from Switzerland. Israel wants the inquiry to concentrate on the Palestinian terror infrastructure in the Jenin camp and demands that team members have expertise on military issues and anti-terrorism.

Israel says it waged eight days of heavy fighting in the camp to root out militants, estimating that about 50 Palestinians were killed, most of them hard-core fighters.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces took over Hebron early Monday, with tanks and armored personnel carriers driving in from all directions.

Nine Palestinians, including six civilians, were killed by Israeli fire, Palestinian witnesses said. In the bloodiest incident, a missile fired from an Israeli helicopter hit a one-story house, killing a gunman and four civilians. Two more civilians who rushed to the scene to try to help were killed by helicopter fire, witnesses said.

In downtown Hebron, Israeli troops lined up dozens of Palestinian men against a wall, handcuffing and blindfolding them. Several of the men knelt on the pavement, as Israeli troops stood guard. In previous incursions, Israel detained large numbers of people for questioning, and released most after several days.

Ben-Eliezer said troops arrested 17 Palestinians in Hebron, including several high on Israel's wanted list, and found two suitcases filled with explosives, as well as a car bomb ready for detonation.

Ben-Eliezer said troops wouldn't stay long. "We went there to hit that infrastructure (of terror groups) and to get out quickly," he said.

The Hebron incursion followed the weekend attack on the nearby Jewish settlement of Adora, in which four Israelis, including a 5-year-old girl, were killed. The militant Islamic group Hamas claimed responsibility for that attack.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said Israel acted in bad faith by sending troops into Hebron. "The moment we accepted the American proposal (on Arafat's confinement), we have an incursion into Hebron," Erekat said. "Every time we show good will ... Israel slaps us in the face."