JERUSALEM, NEW YORK, United Nations, (Islamweb & News Agencies)- Deadly gun battles raged in the streets of the West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Tulkarem Thursday, as the Israeli government mulled pulling out its entrenched forces amid a rising tide of international criticism.
In New York, the United Nations Security Council issued a statement calling for the "immediate withdrawal of all Israeli forces" from Palestinian areas, stopping short of Palestinian demands for a legally-binding resolution.The US Ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, told reporters the statement was "a strong endorsement of the diplomatic efforts that are under way, and we will have to see what happens".
Israel's security cabinet has responded by deciding on a phased withdrawal from six Palestinian self-rule towns in the West Bank, according to Israeli officials.
An official statement gave no date for the start of a withdrawal, saying it would happen provided the Palestinian Authority fulfilled Israel's security demands.
The UN Security Council will review the situation in the Territories again on Monday.
A joint meeting of Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs, along with U.S. officials, would take place on Friday, it said.
An Israeli political source said Israel sought a ``gradual pullout'' from the assault launched after Palestinian leftist Resistance men assassinated an Israeli cabinet minister on October 17, provided the Palestinian Authority ensure calm.
The withdrawal will depend on an end to fighting in each area, ``and we will make security demands regarding each location. If they are met, we will pull back,'' the source said,
He added that the West Bank town of Beit Jala might be the first site of a pullback.
Israel has said it will pull its troops out if the Authority hands over the killers of far-right Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi and dismantle militant organizations involved in attacks against Israelis.
But the Israeli raids have become a source of fresh violence in which more than 40 Palestinians and an Israeli have been killed. Late on Thursday, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian fighter during a gunbattle near Bethlehem in the West Bank, Palestinian sources said.
Death toll rises
In ongoing violence five Palestinians, have been killed during clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Bethlehem and in Tulkarm.
Three Palestinian men were shot dead in Bethlehem, just south of Jerusalem. One was a member of the radical Islamic group Hamas, another a member of the elite Force 17 guards. The third was a said to be a civilian.
In Tulkarem in the north, another Palestinian policeman was killed in clashes. A 5th was killed in Aydah Refugee camp near Bethlehem.
Palestinian officials say more than 50 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's massive eight-day push into the West Bank

Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians took part in the funerals of five of the people killed during the Israeli incursion into Beit Rima.
The crowd demanded revenge for what the Palestinian authorities called a massacre. (Read photo caption below)
The exact death toll in Beit Rima is still unclear - the Israeli's handed over just five bodies for burial, but Palestinian medics claim to have seen at least nine corpses.

Israeli troops pulled out of Beit Rima overnight after an operation in which they arrested a number of people in connection with last week's killing of the Israeli tourism minister, Rehavam Zeevi.
A BBC correspondent in Jerusalem says there is now confusion about the arrests which Israel claimed to have made.
Israeli sources had said two of those detained were suspected of direct involvement with the Zeevi killing last week - but now it appears that those suspects were actually arrested some days ago.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A boy holds a toy gun during the funeral of a Palestinian killed in Bethlehem battles with Israeli troops on October 25, 2001. International efforts to press Israel into withdrawing troops from Palestinian-ruled areas went into high gear, with Washington hailing an Israeli pull-out from a besieged West Bank village as a first step. (Magnus Johansson/Reuters)