Israel Re-enters West Bank Town Tulkarim

The tanks rolled into the town from four directions, covered by attack helicopters.

A Palestinian security spokesman said the Israeli army forces were looking for militants and weapons.

The spokesman also said the Israeli army shelled the refugee camp of Askar near the West Bank town of Nablus in the predawn hours, and that at least four Palestinians were injured in the raid.

Palestinian witnesses said the Israeli army also raided the West Bank villages of Hirbet Beit Hassan, Fara, Luban Sharkiyeh, A-Ram and Anata.

The Israeli army had pulled out from Tulkarim and Qalqilya a week ago after intense international pressure to withdraw from Palestinian areas Israel had seized in an offensive launched on March 29.

On Tuesday, Israeli and Palestinian security officers agreed to let medical and humanitarian teams enter the refugee camp of Jenin to remove Palestinian bodies.

Unofficial Palestinian medical reports say at least 500 Palestinians were killed in Jenin during the Israelis' two-week military offensive. Israel has rejected that figure as too high, saying that no more than 200 Palestinians were slain.

Palestinian witnesses described the camp as a place of ghosts with the smell of death evident in every street and every destroyed house.

"Narrow streets in the camp were widened by tanks and bulldozers, and the cement-made houses were leveled to the ground," said one of the camp's residents, adding that there was a severe shortage of food, water and medicine.

The Palestinians have urged Israel to withdraw from the West Bank towns, and have refused to hold any talks with the Israelis until the pullout occurs.

On Monday, Sharon said troops would stay in Ramallah and Bethlehem until suspects in the slaying of the Israeli tourism minister are turned over.

He also said he would be willing to withdraw forces from other areas in the West Bank within the next week.

"We don't have any intention to stay in those area and those cities, those cities of terror," he told CNN in an interview. "We are accomplishing our mission now, and I made it very clear that once we accomplish it, we'll be leaving. I believe that in one of those towns it might be within two days; another one maybe will take another week."

He said, however, Israeli troops would remain in Bethlehem and Ramallah.

"We are ready to leave Bethlehem, but only after they will be deported or will decide to be arrested and tried in Israel," he said.

Sharon's announcement came as an Israel Defense Forces unit in Ramallah apprehended the leader of Fatah and its militia, Marwan Barghouti, and his cousin and top adviser. Barghouti, who was deported in 1987 to Jordan and was allowed back into the West Bank in 1994, has been one of Israel's prime terror suspects and is alleged to be behind suicide bombing attacks affiliated with al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group named last month to the U.S. State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Palestinian officials said Israel was responsible for Barghouti's well-being.

"Barghouti's life is an Israeli responsibility," said Ahmed Abdel Rahman, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Authority Cabinet.

A statement from al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said Sharon and the United States would pay if Barghouti were harmed.

"If Barghouti is hurt, we will be able to reach Sharon and (Israeli army Chief of Staff Gen.) Shaoul Mofaz," the statement said. "We know how to reach their houses."

It added: "If Barghouti is hurt, the U.S. ambassadors all over the world will be attacked, and we will turn the life of the Israelis into hell."

On the diplomatic front, Secretary of State Colin Powell tried to stave off a war on two fronts. In a hastily planned trip to Damascus, Syria, and Beirut, Lebanon, he pressed Syrian President Bashar Assad and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud to rein in the militant Hezbollah on Israel's northern border.

Since March the group has stepped up its mortar fire and has launched Katyusha rockets on Israeli positions, particularly in the Shabaa farms area.

On the West Bank, his diplomats were trying to broker a solution to the simmering crisis between the Israel Defense Forces and the Palestinians. Powell on Monday gave cautious encouragement to a Middle East peace conference.

"We have got to move quickly to a political track, and there are many ways to do that, and one way is with a regional or international conference," Powell said en route from Damascus to Jerusalem.

But Powell also said that Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat's presence at such a conference was not necessary, a clear nod to Sharon who has said the Israelis would not deal directly with him.

"It does not necessarily require his personal presence to get started, and in fact, one model one could consider is a ministerial-level conference, not necessarily heads of state or government," he said.

Meanwhile the president's envoy continued his talks with Arafat's aides in Jericho, where the secretary has tried to get the Palestinian leader's security services to arrest those terrorists not apprehended by the Israelis already and denounce violence.

"Chairman Arafat has the ability to empower people," Powell told reporters Monday.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday that Powell would meet again with Sharon on Tuesday and with Arafat on Wednesday.

"Our team had good discussions this afternoon [Monday] with the Palestinian side," he said. "We will maintain close contact with both sides in the coming days."

In a related development, European Union foreign ministers Monday stepped back from slapping sanctions on Israel. Ahead of Monday's meeting in Luxembourg, both Spain and Belgium had hinted at punitive measures against Tel Aviv. Last week, the European Parliament also called for the scrapping of an accord that offers Israel preferential access to European markets. But most European states, including Britain, France and Germany, balked at the idea of punishing Israel at such a sensitive time.

Spain, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Union, also demanded that Arafat take part in any high-level peace summit.