Israel Pulls Its Troops Back

JERUSALEM —  Israel pulled its troops out of the West Bank city of Bethlehem and other Palestinian-controlled areas early today after Vice President Dick Cheney and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met in an effort to achieve a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians.

U.S. officials did not expect a cease-fire to be declared before Cheney’s departure from Israel today. But the quickened pace of meetings between U.S. envoy Anthony C. Zinni and Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, coupled with Cheney’s visit and the possibility that the vice president would meet today with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, created a sense of momentum here. But White House officials said this morning that the meeting with Arafat would not take place.

Palestinians said Israeli tanks began withdrawing from the heart of Bethlehem shortly before midnight, and Palestinian security forces began taking up positions there. The pullout was complete before dawn, an Israeli army spokesman said.

Unlike previous pullouts, Palestinians did not flood streets to celebrate the withdrawal, nor did gunmen fire on departing troops. In an announcement issued this morning, the Israeli army said it had pulled out of all Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip it reoccupied two weeks ago.

Five Palestinians and one Israeli officer were killed in overnight clashes in Gaza and the Jordan Valley. In Gaza, two Palestinians who the army said were trying to plant an explosive near a Jewish settlement were shot dead and a third Palestinian was killed by a tank shell in his home, Palestinians said.

And in an early morning gun battle near a military training base in the northern Jordan Valley, an Israeli lieutenant was killed and two Palestinian gunmen also died.

Israeli officials said they agreed during a U.S.-mediated security meeting with the Palestinians on Monday to pull out of Bethlehem and other Palestinian-controlled areas. The withdrawal would pave the way for cease-fire negotiations that both sides said could be concluded by week’s end. Palestinian officials had insisted they would not participate in cease-fire talks until an Israeli pullout was complete.

Zinni described the talks--the highest-level meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security officials in weeks--as “professional, serious and constructive.” He said he expected to preside over another meeting of security chiefs Wednesday.

Israeli troops moved into Bethlehem on Thursday in an effort to prevent gunmen from firing on nearby Gilo, a Jewish neighborhood built on disputed territory. Tanks rolled close to Manger Square on Sunday, and troops killed one gunman in a firefight.

But neither that incursion--nor a suicide bombing and a shooting attack Sunday--derailed Zinni’s efforts.

The envoy’s mission got a boost Monday as Cheney arrived in Tel Aviv at midday from Kuwait. Zinni, a retired Marine Corps general, was at the foot of the airplane steps to greet the vice president. The two rode together in Cheney’s limousine during the nearly one-hour trip to Jerusalem.

The vice president is nearing the end of an 11-day, 12-country journey designed to focus on the war on terrorism. But at every stop, the violence in the Middle East has forced its way onto the agenda, and nowhere more so than here.

With Sharon at his side at an arrival ceremony outside the prime minister’s office, Cheney called on Arafat to honor his commitment “to renounce once and for all the use of violence as a political weapon and to exert a 100% effort to stamp out terrorism.”

He said he would speak with Sharon “in that same spirit . . . about the steps that Israel can take to alleviate the devastating economic hardship being experienced by innocent Palestinian men, women and children.”

Sharon made a concerted effort to link the United States and Israel as two victims of terrorism, expressing sympathy for the U.S. losses in the Sept. 11 attacks while telling Cheney, “In recent months, we have been in the midst of a brutal wave of terrorist attacks aimed at innocent people, civilians at coffee shops and discotheques, youth, babies, entire families that fall prey and are targeted by the Palestinian terrorism.”

Defending his ironfisted response to Palestinian attacks, the prime minister said he would make “painful compromise” to achieve peace. But, he said, “we cannot make any compromise when it comes to the security of our citizens and their right to live without the threat of terrorism and violence.”

Zinni left the region Jan. 3 when the bloodshed showed no sign of abating. Afterward, the violence intensified, with Palestinians launching a string of attacks on Israelis and Israel stepping up its military response until finally, two weeks ago, it launched its largest operation in the West Bank and Gaza since it captured the areas in 1967.

Alarmed at the upsurge in violence, President Bush dispatched Zinni to Jerusalem. He arrived Thursday in a new effort to turn around a nearly 18-month conflict that has created fundamental mistrust between Israeli and Palestinian leaders and a willingness among each side’s public to believe the worst about the other.

Zinni’s goal is to restore enough security to allow resumption of long-term peace talks and bring the Israelis and Palestinians into a process of economic and security cooperation that leads to a break in the violence.

At their most optimistic, U.S. officials believe there are enough elements being considered by both sides--and a shared horror at the level of violence--that they could achieve a first-step security plan within several days.

Monday night, Palestinians fired two Kassam-2 rockets into southern Israel, where they fell into an empty field. In addition, the Israeli army said it foiled an attack on a northern Israeli town when two Palestinians carrying a bag of explosives were arrested by police.

Another Palestinian, who the army said was armed, was shot dead in the Gaza Strip on a road leading to a Jewish settlement.

Zinni’s immediate focus was the withdrawal of Israeli forces from three sections in the Bethlehem area of the West Bank and two in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians want Israel to withdraw from any areas it has occupied since the uprising began in late September 2000.

“I really hope that there will be a real cease-fire based upon a political scheme that guarantees implementation of all agreements,” Mohammed Madani, governor of Bethlehem, said as he awaited Israel’s pullout Monday night. Israel, Madani said, “can make the cease-fire hold by lifting the closure [that keeps Palestinians from their jobs in Israel] and ending the assassination policy [against Palestinian militants].” Such moves, he said, “will enable both sides to restore part of the confidence, which will enable both sides to engage in serious talks.”

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Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Jerusalem contributed to this report.