JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Israel showed signs on Thursday of bowing to demands from its closest ally, the United States, that it withdraw its occupation forces from six West Bank cities it entered or besieged after the revenge assassination of a minister last week.Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to consult senior cabinet ministers on Thursday, aides said, about pulling out of the areas taken in Israel's farthest reaching military operation against the Palestinian Authority.
The consultations appeared to be a face-saving gesture in the wake of one of the most public rifts for years with the United States. Israeli radio stations said occupation troops would start withdrawing from Palestinian-ruled areas by Friday.
Tension rose after Israel occupation soldiers killed at least five Palestinians on Wednesday in an air, armor and infantry assault on a West Bank village. Israel said the raid was intended to arrest militants and those behind the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.
Israeli occupation forces pulled out of the Beit Reema village early on Thursday, military sources said. But there was no word on any wider withdrawal from other Palestinian-ruled West Bank areas.
The Palestinian Authority accused Israel of carrying out a massacre at Beit Reema and declared Thursday an official day of mourning. (Read photo caption below)
The bloodshed dealt a new blow to Washington's effort to sideline the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as it seeks to bolster Arab support for its anti-terrorism alliance after the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Secretary of State Colin Powell reiterated Washington's demand that Israel ``immediately withdraw'' its forces from Palestinian-ruled areas taken since Zeevi was killed by a leftist Palestinian group last week.
Powell also urged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat ``to do everything within his power'' to arrest Zeevi's assassins and ''get the violence down.''
But U.S. pressure was clearly focused on Israel, the recipient of 3 billion in U.S. annual aid.
U.S. officials mulled the unusual step of asking the United Nations Security Council to criticize the Israeli offensive. For the past year, Washington has blocked or vetoed any Security Council action on the Middle East conflict.
Israel radio stations said the army was eager to arrest as many Palestinian militants as possible before the pressure became too much to bear and the government ended the offensive.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Palestinians carry the bodies of four of five slain Palestinians killed a night earlier by Israeli troops during their funeral in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, October 24, 2001. Accusing Arafat of failing to crack down on militants, Israel moved troops and tanks into or around six Palestinian cities, including Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, after gunmen from a radical Palestinian group killed far-right cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi. Since then at least 37 Palestinians and one Israeli, mostly civilians, have been killed. REUTERS/ Abed Omar Qusini
- Oct 24 9:10 AM ET