Palestinians whisked away, clearing way for Arafat to move

Associated Press WriterRAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- Six wanted Palestinians were escorted out of Yasser Arafat's battered offices Wednesday night and whisked away in a convoy of U.S. and British armored cars, a diplomatic breakthrough that effectively ends Arafat's five months of confinement by Israeli troops.

Led by three Israeli security jeeps, the vehicles traveled in single file as they left Arafat's compound, littered with crushed cars and scorched buildings. An hour later they arrived at their destination, a jail in Jericho, a Palestinian-controlled town in the West Bank, about 22 miles away.

At the same time, some Israeli armored vehicles began pulling out of Arafat's compound, part of a planned withdrawal from the entire city that was expected to take about two to six hours, according to Israeli military officials.

The Israeli forces charged into Ramallah and entered Arafat's compound on March 29 as they launched a massive West Bank offensive aimed at rooting out Palestinian militants.

Arafat was expected to remain inside his offices until the Israelis had finished leaving Ramallah, late Wednesday or early Thursday, and was likely to remain in the Palestinian territories for at least the next couple days.

"His plans are still that he's going to stay in his headquarters," Nabil Aburdeneh, Arafat's spokesman, told CNN. Arafat will begin traveling abroad, but first wants to focus on the ongoing crises in the West Bank, Aburdeneh said.

Israel agreed in principle on Sunday to release the Palestinian leader from five months of increasingly stringent confinement -- first to the town of Ramallah, then to the compound, then to a few rooms in his office building.

Under a deal with the United States, the six prisoners will be guarded by American and British wardens in Jericho. Israel had been demanding custody of the men, but agreed to the compromise proposed by President Bush.

The six wanted men have been holed up with Arafat and about 300 people since the March 29 invasion. In a lightning trial at the compound, four were convicted of the killing of Israeli Cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi last October.

The other two are Ahmed Saadat, leader of the radical PLO faction that carried out the assassination, and Fuad Shobaki, alleged mastermind of a seaborne Palestinian arms shipment intercepted by the Israeli navy in January.

The end of Arafat's confinement resolves one of several thorny confrontations in the Mideast conflict. However, the two sides remain far apart on larger issues, such as a cease-fire and a resumption of peace negotiations.

Israel's Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the success of Israel's military offensive in the West Bank "will be judged by the speed with which we return to diplomatic negotiations."

But prospects remained dim amid the ongoing violence.

In the Gaza Strip, four Palestinians were killed Wednesday by Israeli fire, including a 2-year-old girl.

A roadside bomb was detonated early Wednesday near an Israeli tank deployed at the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, along the Israeli-Egyptian border, the military said.

Palestinian witnesses said tanks then fired machine guns and shells at a nearby neighborhood, killing the 2-year-old and a deaf man in their homes. Palestinians said tanks then drove into the Rafah refugee camp, prompting an exchange of fire in which two more Palestinians were killed.

The military said soldiers spotted the Palestinians who set off the roadside bomb, fired on them with light arms and hit one of them. A second attacker was captured, the army said.

In the West Bank town of Bethlehem, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and two other youngsters were critically wounded in a mysterious explosion near a Palestinian police station. The army said it was investigating the blast.

Also Wednesday, Palestinian officials said a total of 52 bodies -- up four from last week -- have been recovered at the Jenin camp, scene of a fierce April 3-11 battle between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen and subject of intense international scrutiny.

Palestinians alleged Israeli troops carried out a massacre of civilians, killing hundreds. But Israel says the death toll is about 50 or slightly higher, and that most of the dead were gunmen killed in combat.

At the Jenin camp, Fahri Turkman, head of the local emergency committee, reiterated allegations that Israeli troops carried out a massacre -- even though the number of bodies found so far appeared to support Israel's version.

"The number (of dead) will increase because we are missing so many people and we don't know if they are in jail or under the rubble," Turkman said. He said it was difficult to put together a list of the missing because Israel has not handed camp officials a list of names of those detained in Israel's offensive.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan was considering canceling a U.N. fact-finding mission to the Jenin camp because of Israel's refusal to cooperate with the team's mandate was changed. Annan was looking for advice from the Security Council on Wednesday before making a decision.

In Bethlehem, two Palestinian policemen, one wounded and the other ill, emerged from the Church of the Nativity on Wednesday, a day after 26 civilians and members of the security forces walked out of the besieged compound.

Nearly 200 others remain holed up in one of Christianity's holiest shrines, and there were no signs the monthlong standoff was ending.

Israel and the Palestinians are at odds regarding about 30 gunmen still in the church. Israel insisted that they either surrender or accept exile; the Palestinians proposed that they be taken to Gaza.