DATE=04/21/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ISRAEL / PALESTINIANS (L)

NUMBER=2-288948

BYLINE= ROSS DUNN

DATELINE=

CONTENT=

INTRO: Israeli troops have begun withdrawing from some parts of the West Bank, while stepping up operations in other areas of the territory. The troop movements came as the United Nations prepared to send a fact-finding mission to the region. Ross Dunn in Jerusalem has more on the story.

TEXT: Israeli tanks fired into the air Sunday as they began pulling out of Nablus, the largest Palestinian self-rule area in the West Bank.

The soldiers also withdrew from most parts of Ramallah, but continue to surround Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the city.

Israeli security officials are discussing the possibility of storming the compound.

The action would be designed to arrest four Palestinians inside Mr. Arafat's offices who are wanted in connection with the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister, Rehavam Ze'evi in October last year.

Israel also wants to arrest one of Mr. Arafat's financial advisors, who has been implicated in a failed attempt to smuggle weapons from Iran to the Gaza Strip.

At the same, an elite Israeli commando unit raided the Qalandiyah refugee camp in Ramallah, searching for what the Israeli army referred to as wanted Palestinian terrorists.

At least 13-armed Palestinians have been arrested during the operation, amid heavy exchanges of gunfire between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops.

The actions come one day after Israel announced it would co-operate with a U-N fact-finding mission, which is to be set-up to investigate Israel's military assault against the West Bank town of Jenin. The Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out a massacre there.

Israel has denied the allegation saying that there had been fierce fighting between soldiers and Palestinian terrorists, who were hiding among the civilian population.

Israel says that the U-N mission should investigate not only the army's actions but how the Jenin Palestinian refugee camp had become a base for terror operations, including suicide bombing missions. (signed)

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