Israeli troops exit largest West Bank city

JERUSALEM -- Firing shells into the air, Israeli tanks began pulling out of the largest West Bank city, Nablus, earlier today, hours after leaving parts of Ramallah, scaling back Israel's 3-week-old military offensive.

Israeli troops remain in Bethlehem and around Yasser Arafat's battered headquarters, where the Palestinian leader is confined. The army said its forces remain in several villages near Jenin, scene of the fiercest fighting of the military campaign and which Israeli forces left on Friday.

The withdrawal from Nablus seemed largely complete shortly before dawn. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a withdrawal was under way.

During the pullout, a group of Israeli settlers tried to march to Joseph's Tomb, where Jews believe Joseph, son of the biblical Jacob, is buried, the official said.

The official described the scene as a "major riot," but said the settlers were turned away and eventually left. No further details were immediately available.

After Israeli forces left one of the Nablus buildings they'd occupied for more than two weeks, residents took a first look at their homes.

Ghasoub Abu Ghoush, who had moved in with a downstairs neighbor when soldiers took over his apartment, gestured to an empty drawer he said had contained gold jewelry. Empty cases and only a couple of pieces were left lying inside.

Abu Ghoush explained that up to 30 soldiers had been staying inside his apartment. Most doors in the building were dented in, their locks broken, and sewage covered the floor of one home.

On Saturday, tanks and armored personnel carriers also were seen heading out of some Ramallah neighborhoods. Raanan Gissin, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman, confirmed some forces were redeploying to just outside the city.

"Any place that we've finished ... we pull out," Gissin said. Israel has said it will maintain its siege at Arafat's compound until he turns over suspects in the killing of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.

Israeli troops also remain in the heart of Bethlehem, where they're expected to stay until a standoff between soldiers and armed Palestinians holed up in the Church of the Nativity ends.

A Franciscan priest inside the church since the standoff began April 2 said Saturday that the last food supplies had run out.

"There is no food left in the church now for the Palestinians or the monks and nuns," said The Rev. Ibrahim Faltas. There was no running water and electricity was intermittent, he said.