Sharon orders new invasion

Israeli forces began to pull out of two West Bank towns today following heated demands from President Bush to withdraw and ahead of US secretary of state Colin Powell's visit to Israel.

But the Israeli withdrawal cannot be seen as a change in policy by prime minister Ariel Sharon who simultaneously ordered his troops to invade Dora, another West Bank village, while his troops continued their search for terrorist cells.

Fighting continued in Jenin, where two Israelis were killed yesterday, amid allegations from Palestinians and human rights groups that troops had been using Palestinians as human shields while searching for the terrorist hideouts.

Tanks and armour began to leave Qalkilya and Tulkarm, the first two towns invaded nearly two weeks ago but there was no indication when they would leave the bigger cities of Jenin, Bethlehem and Nablus.

Bethlehem presents the Israelis with a difficult problem diplomatically and militarily. More than 200 gunmen and some priests have been holed up in the Basilica of the Nativity for a week and Israel has come in for bitter criticism from Britain and the Vatican for allegedly firing into the holy site.

With Mr Powell's visit hours away, Israeli officials are anxious to end the standoff before its becomes an embarrassing focus of the trip.

"It's a start," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in the first US reaction to Israel's announcement of a pull-back. Mr Powell, speaking at the start of a Middle East mission in Morocco, welcomed the Israeli move but added: "Let us hope that this is not a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but the beginning of a pull-back".

Mr Bush and the rest of the international community had become irritated by Israel's refusal to withdraw after repeated and emphatic calls from the White House and London to end the invasions and sieges in which more than 200 Palestinians have been killed.

The United Nations has also criticised Israel for its operations which, it said, created a grave humanitarian crisis and violated international law. Yesterday Btselem, the Israeli human rights organisation, said that it had evidence that Israeli troops were using Palestinians as human shields.

Six soldiers entered the al Baq Mosque in the old city of Nablus, where an emergency clinic has been set up. In the clinic were 45 wounded people, four doctors, several volunteers, and 10 corpses that it had not yet been possible to remove.

According to the information provided to Btselem by Dr Zahara el Wawi, a doctor at the clinic, the soldiers entered the mosque with their guns resting on the shoulders of Palestinian civilians, who were forced to march in front of the soldiers as human shields. Allegations of widespread human rights abuses by the Israeli army are certain to mar Mr Powell's visit. But for the time being Mr Sharon, has headed off a deepening of a diplomatic row with his closest ally, which provides of $3 billion in aid each year.

Meanwhile, several hundred Palestinians laid down their weapons after a protracted battle in Nablus, where troops said they found 16 arms workshops.

'Fencing in Palestinians is only option'