Israeli troops to withdraw from Qalqilya

Israeli troops are set to withdraw from areas around the West Bank city of Qalqilya today, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday.

Israeli troops are set to withdraw from areas around the West Bank city of Qalqilya today, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday.

Israel radio said Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told a meeting of Sharon’s Cabinet today that the withdrawal would begin later in the day.

The development came as Sharon cancelled a trip to the US, where he was to have met US President George W. Bush on November 11. Sharon’s spokesman said the security situation required the prime minister to remain in Israel.

The US has repeatedly criticised Israel’s incursions into six Palestinian cities that came in response to the assassination on October 17 of Israel’s ultranationalist tourism minister, Rehavam Zeevi.

Washington feared the incursions would harm efforts to rally Arab support for its war in Afghanistan.

Sharon’s Cabinet has said troops would withdraw if the Palestinians met several conditions, including the enforcement of a ceasefire and arrests of anti-Israeli militants.

As part of what Israel called a test case, troops pulled out of Bethlehem and Beit Jalla last week. Israeli tanks remain in areas of Ramallah, Tulkarem, Jenin and Qalqilya.

Israeli forces will soon begin pulling out of Qalqilya, Sharon’s spokesman Raanan Gissin said. ‘‘The intention is to start withdrawing,’’ Gissin said. ‘‘In the first phase we will redeploy forces around Qalqilya.’’

Ben-Eliezer told the Cabinet the troops would begin withdrawing from Qalqilya on Sunday night, Israel radio reported. Redeployments from the other three Palestinian cities will follow soon after, Ben-Eliezer said, according to the report.

While pressing for a complete pullout, the US has also urged both sides to return to the negotiating table a call that in recent weeks has been repeated by Arafat.

Sharon has said he will not negotiate while violence continues, although last week he didn’t mention that condition in a speech to members of the World Jewish Congress.

A Palestinian official said Saturday that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will attend the U.N. General Assembly’s annual debate in New York from November 10-12, which Bush is expected to attend.

Today, Israeli forces shot surface-to-surface missiles toward three factories in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said.

The Israeli army said the plants produced mortar shells.

’’The army will continue to operate in order to stop the Palestinian terror and to protect the lives of Israeli citizens,’’ the military said in a release on the strike.

About 30 mortar shells had been fired toward Jewish settlements in the area in recent days, Israeli military officials said.

Palestinian witnesses denied shells were produced at the factories, saying that machines to cut wood and marble were made at the facilities.

The attack set the buildings on fire, spewing black smoke into the air. Several buildings around the factories were also damaged, the witnesses said.

Nearby, in Beit Hanoun, Israeli forces shot artillery shells at a Palestinian police post, destroying it, Palestinian security said. The shells also hit an electric transmitter, cutting off power in the area. The army said it shot heavy-calibre bullets in the area in response to the firing of a mortar shell.

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