THE MIDDLE EAST: Nine Palestinians were killed early yesterday morning as Israeli tanks and infantrymen, backed by helicopter gunships, moved deep into the West Bank city of Hebron. The incursion, involving an estimated 50 tanks and personnel carriers, came two days after armed Palestinians shot dead four Israelis in a raid on the nearby Jewish settlement of Adora.
Hamas sources were quoted as saying that one of the men killed yesterday was involved in the Adora attack. Palestinian sources said many of the others were civilians - several of them hit by a rocket fired into a house by a helicopter gunship. The Israeli army had no immediate comment.
The Hebron area was one of the few parts of the West Bank largely ignored during this month's unprecedented Israeli military offensive in the West Bank, launched in the wake of a succession of suicide bombings. Israel's Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, said last night that 17 "terror suspects" had been arrested and a car-bomb found. "We did not go there to stay there," he said. "We went there to damage the terror infrastructure and to leave."
The Palestinian negotiator, Mr Saeb Erekat, called the incursion "a slap in the face", deliberately timed after the Palestinians had shown "goodwill" to resolve the siege of President Yasser Arafat's Ramallah headquarters.
Under a US proposal accepted by Israel and the Palestinians on Sunday, six men inside the headquarters whom Israel wanted to extradite are instead to be jailed in Jericho, in a Palestinian installation overseen by British and US warders.
British and American officials were sent here yesterday to finalise the logistics of the move, which involves four men convicted by a Palestinian military tribunal of last October's killing of the Israeli tourism minister, Mr Rehavam Ze'evi; the head of the Palestinian faction alleged by Israel to have ordered the hit; and a top adviser to Mr Arafat accused by Israel of financing the intercepted Karine A arms shipment.
Mr Ben-Eliezer said Mr Arafat was now "free to go where he chooses", but aides to the Palestinian leader said he would only depart when the six men were transferred, which could be as soon as today.
The Ramallah precedent has not been used to resolve the ongoing siege at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, where those inside are said to have been reduced to eating wild vegetation. An armed Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops in the church compound yesterday.
Mr Sharon evidently bowed to US presidential pressure in return for a promise of assistance from Washington in dealing with the UN fact-finding team appointed to investigate events at Jenin refugee camp.
Israel denies Palestinian allegations of war crimes. As of last night, Israel was still declining to host the team, complaining about its mandate and that its three main members are diplomats rather than military experts.