HIGHLIGHTS: Besieged Palestinians & Clerics Run Out of Food At Church of Nativity. (Read photo caption within).
First Phase of Savage Offensive Over, Second Phase Could Be Buffer Zones.
Two Palestinian Guards Killed in Gaza.
Palestinian Governmental Infrastructure Badly Battered.

STORYIsrael has almost completed its tactical withdrawal from most Palestinian cities while maintaining its strategic policy of encirclement. Occupation army sources said their occupation troops would remain in the outskirts of the cities, and suggested that further incursions were possible if Palestinian militants carried out more attacks against Israelis.

As the withdrawal of occupation forces was completed Palestinians began the awesome work of digging out the dead from beneath the rubble in Jenin and rebuilding their shattered cities and towns across the land.

In Bethlehem and Qalandiya, intifadha confrontations continued.

Still, the West Bank pullback appeared to fall short of the timetable Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gave President Bush last week, since no troops were moved in Bethlehem. Israel said withdrawing forces from other parts of the biblical city would expose its occupation troops surrounding the church, where some 200 Palestinian Resistance men are holed up.

A Franciscan priest said food had run out inside the Church of the Nativity.

FIRST PHASE OVER, SECOND PHASE COULD BE BUFFER ZONES

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared Sunday that Israel has completed the latest stage of its "war on terrorism" and will turn to new tactics as it presses the campaign.

Sharon gave no details, but he has spoken previously about creating a buffer zone that would make it more difficult for Palestinians in the West Bank to reach Israeli cities and towns. Israel already has an extensive network of checkpoints that keeps most Palestinians out.

TWO PALESTINIAN GUARDS KILLED IN GAZA

In Gaza, two Palestinians were killed in a clash with Israeli forces on Sunday, Palestinian security officials said. The Palestinians said the two were guarding the Boureij refugee camp when they encountered an Israeli undercover unit and were killed.

QALANDIYA BATTLE

On Sunday, Israel's military said it arrested a leader of the Tanzim militia and 12 other Palestinians after a brief gunbattle in the Qalandiya refugee camp outside Ramallah. The camp falls under the agreed area of Israeli control which it was not required to leave.

Occupation army authorities said Nasser Abu Hmeid, 31, was responsible for training fighters of Tanzim, the military wing of Arafat's Fatah movement, and was the right-hand man for Marwan Barghouti, the Tanzim leader who was arrested April 16. Hmeid was involved in several shootings and bombings against Israelis, the army said.

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY FACES DAMAGE

It remains to be seen whether Israel dealt a serious blow to what it termed the "terrorist infrastructure" in the West Bank, but the Palestinian governmental infrastructure built over the years by Yasser Arafat clearly has been battered - ministries are ransacked, files and computer disks missing, office equipment wrecked.

THE REBUILDING OF CITIES & TOWNS

In Ramallah, the departing tanks and soldiers left buildings and roads heavily damaged, street lighting knocked out, stores in ruins and cars crushed on the roadside.

Tayseer Al-Juba, 30, exploring the devastated scene, said he felt lucky "to be getting out of this terrible situation alive. Now we can make sure our relatives and our beloved are fine. God have mercy on the martyrs and help their families be patient."
The Nablus municipality said 80 percent of its low-tension electricity was knocked out and 200 electrical polls were toppled, 70 percent of its water network was damaged, up to 70 percent of the sewage system was destroyed. and more than half the roads were torn up.

Throughout the West Bank, tank treads have chewed up roads, passing armor has shaved the edges off buildings on street corners, holes gape in some walls, lamp posts are down and cars are crumpled like tin cans. Streets are cluttered with concrete blocks, old tires, and garbage from overturned and crushed rubbish bins.        

SIFTING THROUGH THE RUBBLE IN JENIN

Palesinians and international rescue teams sifted through rubble in Jenin in an effort to find and defuse booby traps in the Jenin refugee camp on Sunday. Rescue workers said it was possible but unlikely that someone would be found alive under the debris in the Jenin camp.

The urgency of the mission was underscored when two children were wounded by an explosive they may have picked up from the ruins.

Jenin hospital officials said 45 bodies have been recovered, and more were likely to be found when layers of concrete are removed.

Palestinians suspect hundreds of people died in the savave Israeli offensive in the Jenin camp and remain beneath the rubble.

The United Nations, which is sending a fact-finding mission to the Jenin area, has declared the refugee camp a disaster zone. U.S. Mideast envoy William Burns, who visited the camp Saturday, called it a "terrible human tragedy."

"What happened in Jenin camp has caused enormous suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians," said Burns.

PHOTO CAPTION:

Palestinians check their stores next to damaged barricades in the West Bank town of Ramallah Sunday, April 21, 2002. Israel withdrew from most of Ramallah overnight but said it would continue to besiege Yasser Arafat's compound. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasse