MIDDLE EAST: The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, yesterday threatened to declare the UN envoy to the Middle East persona non grata, and vowed that his government would never evacuate any Jewish settlements.
His remarks came as Israeli troops and tanks continued to roll out of Palestinian cities, with the army ending its invasion of Nablus and also pulling out of much of Ramallah.
Tanks continued to impose a tight blockade on Nablus, while troops and armoured vehicles maintained a stranglehold on Mr Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah, and on the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where 200 Palestinians, among them gunmen Israel wants arrested, have been under siege with civilians and a group of monks for almost three weeks. With food and water inside the church running low, five Palestinians left the building yesterday waving a white flag, and surrendered to Israeli troops.
Israeli troops continue to ring the towns of Jenin, Tulkarm and Qalqilyah, and yesterday they arrested a senior commander in the Tanzim militia, which is associated with Mr Arafat's Fatah party, as well as 12 other Palestinians after a gun-battle in the Qalandiyah refugee camp outside Ramallah.
The exit from Nablus, Mr Sharon said, signalled the end of the present phase of the Israeli offensive. "We have serious achievements, but the battle against terror goes on - by other means," Mr Sharon said.
Mr Sharon said he was not contemplating uprooting Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The prime minister's remarks at the weekly cabinet meeting came after a Labour Party minister wondered why he had not responded to reported recommendations by senior army officers that isolated settlements, especially those in the Gaza Strip, be dismantled because they were a security liability.
Mr Sharon also added his voice to the blistering verbal barrage Israeli leaders have unleashed on the UN envoy, Mr Terje Roed-Larsen, who last week described the scenes of destruction in the Jenin refugee camp as "horrific beyond belief". Mr Larsen also took Israel to task for not allowing humanitarian aid agencies to operate unfettered in the West Bank.
Mr Sharon said he was considering declaring Mr Larsen persona non grata - a move strongly opposed by the Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres - and he barred government officials from having any contact with the UN representative.
The Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, accused Mr Larsen of being "guilty of incitement", and his Labour Party colleague, the Industry and Trade Minister, Ms Dalia Itzik, said the envoy's remarks were tantamount to "a kangaroo court unbefitting an objective diplomat".
Mr Larsen insisted he had not accused Israel of committing a massacre in Jenin, but that he had criticised Israel for not allowing international relief agencies access to the camp. "I have always been a friend of the Israelis and the Palestinians and I am still their friend," said Mr Larsen, who was a key figure in forging the Oslo peace process.
Visiting Jenin on Saturday, the US Middle East envoy, Mr William Burns, called it a "terrible human tragedy", which had "caused enormous suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians".
What exactly transpired in the camp - the Palestinians say hundreds died in a massacre; Israel says dozens, mostly gunmen, were killed in fierce house-to-house fighting - will be the subject of a UN fact-finding mission which is expected in the region shortly. Under US pressure, Israel agreed on Friday to the setting up of such a mission, and Mr Sharon has said his government will co-operate fully with the delegation.