Deal Struck to End Israel’s Siege of Arafat Compound

Israel and the Palestinians on Sunday accepted a U.S. proposal aimed at lifting the Israeli army’s monthlong siege of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat inside his West Bank headquarters.

The deal, based on a proposal by President Bush, would release Arafat from weeks spent trapped on two floors of his shattered offices in Ramallah and defuse one of the most contentious issues dividing the two sides.

Palestinian officials said they expected the siege to be lifted as early as today.

At his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Bush praised the Israeli and Palestinian decisions as “important steps along the path to peace.”

However, the president, who was originally reluctant to involve his administration in the Middle East conflict, said Arafat must act decisively “in word and in deed against terror directed at Israeli citizens.”

“Chairman Arafat is now free to move around and free to lead,” Bush said. “And we expect him to do so.”

Despite the apparent breakthrough, Israeli tanks and troops invaded the divided West Bank city of Hebron early today. The incursion, which the army said was limited, was in response to Saturday’s attack on the Jewish settlement of Adora, in which four Israelis were killed and seven wounded.

Palestinian areas of Hebron were under curfew early today as Israeli troops conducted house-to-house searches for militants and weapons, an army spokeswoman said.

Seven Palestinians were reported killed.

The U.S. proposal accepted Sunday came amid a flurry of developments, as the Cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also announced that it would bar a United Nations team from investigating Israel’s recent assault on a West Bank refugee camp. A Cabinet minister said the government rejected the inquiry because it feared that the U.N. was “out to get us.”

The mission, led by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, also includes former International Committee of the Red Cross chief Cornelio Sommaruga and Sadako Ogata, a former head of the U.N. refugee agency.

The U.S. proposal, approved overwhelmingly by the Sharon Cabinet, centers on a group of six men, wanted by Israel, who have been holed up with Arafat and about 100 others in the besieged headquarters. Under the terms accepted Sunday, the men would be allowed to serve their sentences in a Palestinian prison, under the control of American and British guards.

In exchange, Arafat would be allowed to travel freely in Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and perhaps even abroad, for the first time since December.

Until the proposal, which Bush made Saturday in telephone calls to Sharon, Israel had insisted that the Palestinians surrender the wanted men before it would agree to withdraw the tanks and troops that have encircled Arafat’s offices since March 29. As part of a sweeping West Bank offensive, Israel had demanded that Arafat act forcefully to rein in militants who have targeted Israelis this year in a devastating series of suicide bombings and other attacks.

Five of the six men are wanted by the Israelis in connection with the assassination in October of Rehavam Zeevi, Israel’s tourism minister. The sixth, Arafat aide Fuad Shubaki, is accused of involvement in a large shipment of arms for the Palestinian Authority, allegedly from Iran, that was intercepted by Israel on Jan. 3.

Gideon Meir, deputy director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said Israel had not given up on its demand that the men be extradited but had accepted U.S. and British assurances that they would remain in prison, albeit in Palestinian territory.

“In every agreement, there is compromise,” Meir said. “At this point, this seemed like the right one to make.”

Israeli officials said Sharon, who spoke with Bush several times Saturday and at least twice more Sunday, had accepted an invitation from the president to visit Washington next week.

After Sharon’s Cabinet voted Sunday afternoon to accept the plan, the proposal was conveyed to Arafat in Ramallah by U.S. and British consular officials. A few hours later, Palestinian representatives announced that Arafat also had agreed to it.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said U.S. and British security experts were expected to arrive in the region today to settle the “technical details” of the transfer of the six men. When those are resolved, he said, the siege will be lifted, perhaps late today or Tuesday.

Meanwhile Sunday, the Israeli Cabinet voted to prevent the U.N. team from investigating allegations surrounding actions by the Israeli army during its recent eight-day occupation of the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. Palestinians have accused the army of killing hundreds of civilians during the assault on the camp, a militant stronghold that was the scene of the most bitter fighting of the Israeli offensive.

Israel originally agreed to cooperate with the U.N. effort, but in the last week it has expressed increasing objections about the composition of the team and the scope of its mission. It has sought several delays in the team’s arrival and sent representatives to New York to clarify the investigators’ mandate and try to add military and counter-terrorism experts to their number.

Sunday, after seven hours of Cabinet discussion, Israeli Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin told reporters that the U.N. had reneged on commitments made to Israel about the inquiry, making injustice in its conclusions almost inevitable.

“This awful United Nations committee is out to get us and is likely to smear Israel,” Rivlin said. “No country in the world would agree to such a thing.”

Meir, the Foreign Ministry official, said that although Israel was continuing to negotiate with the U.N. over the mission, conditions for the team’s arrival were not yet “ripe.” When they are, he said, the government will cooperate fully.

Palestinians have objected to Israel’s postponements of the mission and did so again Sunday.

“We’re asking the secretary-general to send the team and let Sharon turn them back from the airport if he wants to do that,” Erekat said. “Let the world see what they are trying to hide.”

Also Sunday, negotiators made no progress on efforts to end the 26-day-old standoff at the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, traditionally held to be the site of Jesus’ birth.

About 200 Palestinians and 40 clerics, their supplies of food and water limited, have remained trapped inside the 4th century basilica since the beginning of the Israeli incursion into Bethlehem on April 2.

Israel now believes that at least 10 wanted men are holed up with the Palestinians, and it has demanded their exile or trial. The Palestinians have proposed sending the men to Gaza for trial by Palestinian authorities.

On Sunday, Palestinian negotiators asked to talk with the men inside and bring them food, saying permission for them to do so would be a good-faith gesture by Israel. Israeli military officials said that they were considering the request and that negotiations would continue.

The military “is taking every possible measure to ensure that both the hostages and the terrorists are released in a quick and safe manner,” said Capt. Sharon Feingold, an Israeli army spokeswoman.

But previously upbeat negotiators on the Palestinian side were more reserved Sunday, predicting up to a week more of talks. Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser said there had been “no advancement” since face-to-face talks began April 23.

A key sticking point emerged on how the Israelis would deal with the Palestinians in the church who are not on the wanted list.

Nasser said the Israeli government was insisting that each Palestinian in the church undergo interrogation. But the Palestinians are afraid that could result in additional expulsions or prison terms beyond the 10 wanted men.

“The Israelis are adamant that they interrogate each” man, Nasser said.

The Israeli military declined to discuss negotiation details.

Nasser also said he had spoken to Arafat about the possibility of arranging a deal similar to the one the Israeli Cabinet endorsed to end the siege of the Palestinian leader’s compound in Ramallah.

Under that scenario, U.S. or U.N. troops would oversee the transfer of the wanted men to Gaza for trial.

According to Nasser, Arafat said, “Let’s keep in touch and see what happens.”

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Trounson reported from Jerusalem and Miller from Bethlehem. Times staff writer James Gerstenzang in Crawford, Texas, contributed to this report.