QALQILYA, West Bank (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Israeli tanks and occupation troops began on Monday to pull back from positions in and around the West Bank city of Qalqilya, security sources from both sides said.Two Israeli tanks and occupation troops on foot pulled out of the southern entrance to the city where Palestinian security officers took up positions, Palestinian security sources said. An Israeli source said ``the pullout has begun.''
Israeli officials had said Sunday that the pullback from Qalqilya would proceed despite an attack in Jerusalem in which a Palestinian Resistance man sprayed an Israeli bus with automatic rifle fire before two police officers and a civilian shot him dead. An Israeli passanger was killed in the attack. 16 others were wounded two of them seriously. (Read photo caption below)
Occupation soldiers also left two houses they occupied in southern Qalqilya at the start of a widescale Israeli offensive against six Palestinian cities in the West Bank after Palestinian leftist Resistance men assassinated an Israeli cabinet minister on October 17 in retaliation for Israel's killing of their leader.
Israeli occupation forces had withdrawn from positions inside Bethlehem and the nearby town of Beit Jala last week under pressure from the United States which seeks to calm more than a year of Middle East violence to shore up support for its anti-terror war.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Khatem Shweiki, 24, is seen holding the Quran to his chest in this undated photo, released late Sunday, Nov. 4, 2001 from the Islamic Jihad Resistance group. Israeli occupation authorities reported that the Palestinian militant, who opened fire on a bus at the busy intersection in northeastern Jerusalem, killing two passengers and wounding more than 40 others, was Shweiki from the West Bank town of Hebron. Occupation troops shot and killed him after the attack. (AP Photo)