Sunday December 16, 7:46 AM
US pulls out peace envoy as Israel kills four in Gaza raids
A frustrated United States announced the recall of its Middle East peace envoy after Israeli forces stormed into Palestinian towns in the Gaza Strip on deadly raids to hunt down militants.
Israeli troops killed four Palestinians and wounded scores more as tanks blazed a trail of destruction across the northern town of Beit Hanun after warplanes bombed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in Gaza City for a third straight night.
But only minutes after Washington announced that peace envoy General Anthony Zinni would be leaving the region emptyhanded "for consultations," Israel began pulling back its forces from Beit Hanun.
Zinni was dispatched on November 26 on the first Middle East peace mission under the administration of President George W. Bush, but since then 109 people have been killed in a vicious cycle of attack and counter-attack.
However, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher insisted the United States had not yet given up, saying "General Zinni will remain engaged and return to the region."
And both Israel and the Palestinians, locked in bitter conflict since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, voiced hope Zinni would return, each blaming the other for his recall.
"His recall is a US decision but it is obvious it is caused by the Palestinian refusal to respect their engagements regarding the ceasefire," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin said.
And Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat charged: "Since he started his mission, Israel has killed 67 Palestinians and reoccupied parts of the West bank and Gaza."
The US decision follows its veto of an Arab-sponsored UN Security Council resolution on the crisis that called for international monitoring.
The United States was exercising its veto power for only the second time in more than four years, and once again put the pressure back on Arafat, dismissed by Israel as "irrelevant."
"Unfortunately the resolution ... never mentions the recent acts of terror against Israelis or those responsible for them," said the US ambassador at the UN, John Negroponte.
Arafat advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina warned the veto would bolster Israel's military escalation, echoing the sentiments of many in the Arab world.
Arab foreign ministers are now set to meet in Cairo next week to discuss the deepening crisis following an urgent Palestinian demand.
Under virtual Israeli house arrest in his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah with Israeli tanks only 200 meters (yards) away, Arafat is due make a televised speech to his people Sunday to mark Eid el-Fitr, the feast ending the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Analysts suggest the embattled 72-year-old leader could call for an end to the intifada that has now cost 1,102 lives.
And late Saturday, Palestinian police announced that 13 offices in the Gaza Strip of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two radical groups behind most anti-Israeli attacks, had been closed on the orders of Arafat's authority.
A Palestinian security official told AFP that the Palestinian Authority was also closing Hamas and Jihad offices in the West Bank, but did not elaborate.
The death toll rose again Saturday with the killing of four Palestinians during the raids on Beit Hanun as Israel, exasperated by a spate of bloody attacks by Islamic activists in recent weeks, took the law into its own hands to hunt down suspects.
The army said the operation was "aimed at terrorists" of Hamas and announced the arrest of five people, while the Palestinians said 10 were captured.
About 30 tanks stormed into Beit Hanun overnight and, evoking memories of the early days of the Palestinian uprising, were met with hundreds of stone-throwing Palestinian youths.
Those killed were a Palestinian border policeman, two teenagers and 12-year-old boy, while another 75 were injured, Palestinian officials said.
Soldiers backed by dozens of tanks and Apache attack helicopters advanced from the Erez border checkpoint in the north of the Gaza Strip, pushing several kilometers (miles) into Beit Hanun.
The army, which also carried out a more limited raid into Tal al-Sultan in the southern Gaza Strip, took positions in strategic squares and imposing the first curfew there since the Palestinian Authority was created in 1994.
The army also hit offices of security building linked to Arafat, including his Force 17 guard, a police station and an intelligence unit, Palestinian sources said.
A Palestinian was also killed near the Gush Katif settlement bloc overnight by the army, which suggested he may have been planning an attack.
Late Saturday, another Palestinian was killed by an explosive charge he detonated on the "Green Line" separating Israel from the West Bank near the Palestinian city of Tulkarem, Israeli police said. The police added they thought he was preparing a suicide attack on Tel Aviv.
Russia, a co-sponsor of the Middle East peace process with the United States, condemned Israel's actions.
"The choice of these (Israeli) measures will not solve the problems that have accumulated in Israeli-Palestinian relations," President Vladimir Putin said.
An EU statement urged Israel to negotiate with Arafat "the elected president of the Palestinian Authority" despite the Jewish state dismissing him as "irrelevant."
"His capacity to combat terrorism must not be weakened," it said.