Arafat vows to fight terrorist attacks

JERUSALEM -- A beleaguered Yasser Arafat vowed in a televised speech Wednesday to unleash his security services to prevent terrorist attacks, hours after the Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 15 Israelis.

Early Thursday, there were indications that a standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was ending. A Palestinian inside the church said negotiators told 26 Palestinians there to be ready to leave momentarily.

Signaling that the end of the siege was near, the Palestinian governor of Bethlehem, Mohammed Madani, left the church for the first time since the siege began. He was accompanied by two priests as he ducked through the low-slung main door of the 4th-century church.

Meanwhile, about 10 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles entered the Palestinian section of the city of Hebron in the West Bank early Thursday, witnesses said. Israeli military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was a limited operation but gave no other details.

Arafat declared on Palestinian TV that he gave "orders and directions to all the Palestinian security forces to confront and prevent all terror attacks against Israeli civilians from any Palestinian side or parties."

President Bush called Arafat's statement against terrorism an "incredibly positive sign," and he urged Israel to consider the consequences of its response to the suicide attack. "You've got to want peace to achieve peace," Bush said in Washington, just before meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon returned home from talks in Washington to determine Israel's response.

He held an emergency Israeli Cabinet meeting early Thursday to consider proposals, which could include an offensive in the Gaza Strip and Arafat's expulsion. Neither Sharon nor any Cabinet members made any statement after the meeting.

Palestinian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they expected Israel to strike at the Gaza Strip, home base of Hamas, which claimed responsibility for Tuesday's bombing and scores of other attacks during the past 19 months of fighting.

Hamas leader speaks

Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas spiritual leader, told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday his group would continue attacks against Israel. "Israel's action will not go unpunished. They have harmed civilians and so their civilians will be harmed," he said. Israel arrested two Hamas leaders in the West Bank on Wednesday.

The densely populated Gaza Strip was spared during Israel's recent military operation in the West Bank, launched March 29 in response to suicide bombings.

Defense Ministry spokesman Yarden Vatikay declined to comment on the possibility of an incursion into Gaza.