JERUSALEM, April 26 – President Bush called sharply today for Israel to halt its incursions into Palestinian-controlled territory, after Israeli ground forces killed 2 men and arrested at least 11 in a raid on Qalqilya, a West Bank city they had previously invaded.
"It's time to end this," Mr. Bush said from his ranch in Crawford, Tex., where he had met a day earlier with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The president's renewed demand seemed to reflect Saudi insistence that the United States take some distance from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel.
But Mr. Bush was requesting, again, a halt to an operation that is broadly popular with Israelis and that has restored the domestic standing of Mr. Sharon.
With a strong majority of Israelis saying they felt safer after the offensive, 65 percent described themselves as pleased with Mr. Sharon's performance, in a poll published today by the newspaper Maariv. In mid-March, two weeks before the mission began, his support had collapsed, sinking to 35 percent in a Maariv poll, which is conducted regularly and samples some 500 Israelis each time, often registering marked volatility.
With such backing for his policies, Mr. Sharon is still hesitating over admitting a United Nations team to investigate the events at the refugee camp at Jenin. Palestinians charge that hundreds of civilians may have been killed by the Israeli military at the camp, an assertion the army rejects.
After a day of maneuvering at the United Nations in New York, it was announced that the team – which Secretary General Kofi Annan had insisted would arrive in Israel on Saturday morning – would not go to Israel before Sunday, in deference to the Sabbath.
"This should end with a positive result," said Under Secretary Kieran Prendergast, who has negotiated for two days with representatives sent by Mr. Sharon to voice Israel's objections to the mission. But there was still a chance that the Israeli cabinet could refuse to accept the mission, or restrict its operations.
Mr. Bush first called for an Israeli withdrawal on April 4, and he later suggested that he was satisfied with Israel's partial pullback from most of the cities and towns it had seized since late March, in what it called a hunt for terrorists.
Israeli officials say they have been left no choice by a Palestinian administration that refuses to crack down on violence, but Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to erase the boundaries of autonomous Palestinian zones created under the Oslo peace accord.
Mr. Bush affirmed his support for Israel today, but he said the Israelis "understand my position," adding, "I've been very clear, and there has been some progress, but it's now time to quit it altogether."
On Thursday, Prince Abdullah warned Mr. Bush that the United States would continue to lose credibility in the Arab world if it did not temper its support for Israel.
Before Mr. Bush spoke, Israeli forces also raided four other West Bank villages today, arresting 20 men, the army said.
After a nearly two-week lull, Israel's northern border heated up again, as the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah renewed its attacks on Israeli outposts there. Israel responded with artillery fire.
Earlier this month, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell flew to Lebanon and Syria to press for quiet on the northern border, where regular fire fights had threatened to widen the conflict.
As Israeli soldiers maintain sieges in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem, Israeli forces elsewhere are now relying on tips from their intelligence services to move in and out of Palestinian areas in pursuit of wanted men, the army said.
In Ramallah today, Palestinians and foreign supporters clashed with Israeli soldiers as several hundred demonstrators tried to march to the besieged headquarters of Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader. About a dozen people were reported wounded.
Israeli officials said that in attacking Qalqilya, the army had stopped three suicide bombers on their way to carry out a synchronized attack. An official said that once Mr. Bush knew of that outcome, he would be supportive of the Israeli raid.
The army said it had found several suicide belts in Qalqilya. It also said it had killed Raed Nazal, the local leader of the militant Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. But Palestinian officials did not immediately confirm that claim.
Mr. Sharon is raising taxes in part to pay for the military operation, the Israeli economy is continuing its slump, and the shekel is sliding against the dollar. But none of that seemed to matter, as some Israelis began tentatively returning this week to cafes and other public spaces in hopes that suicide bombings may have been stopped, at least for now.
Demonstrators in the West Bank and Gaza today vented Palestinians' simmering anger over an Israeli offensive that placed hundreds of thousands of them under 24-hour curfew, and which cost an unknown number of civilian lives along with those of many gunmen. Hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed, as were some mosques. Some Israeli commentators have questioned whether the military assault will contribute to peace in the long term.
But Israelis are so pleased with the operation – Israel's biggest ground offensive in 20 years – that a plurality of 48 percent of those interviewed for the Maariv poll said journalists critical of government policy and the military operation should be forbidden to appear on television.
A majority of 55 percent backed a decision to cancel a performance planned to honor a popular singer, Yaffa Yarkoni. She criticized the military operation after the performance was scheduled.
A poll published today by the newspaper Yediot Ahronot also showed a rebound for the prime minister. Asked if they relied on Mr. Sharon to "lead the country successfully," 64 percent of respondents said they did, up from 45 percent in March. Both newspaper polls had margins of error of 4.5 percentage points.
The Israeli government argues that the United Nations mission to Jenin is stacked to judge Israel harshly, by emphasizing humanitarian concerns and ignoring military considerations and the threat Israel felt it faced from militants in the refugee camp. Palestinians charge a cover-up by Israel.
Israel particularly objects to Cornelio Sommaruga of Switzerland, the former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The team is headed by Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president and longtime European diplomat who helped to negotiate an end to the 1999 war over Kosovo, and includes Sadako Ogata of Japan, the former United Nations high commissioner for refugees.
"Israel wants to hide the massacres and disasters committed in the camp," said Nabil Aburdeineh, an aide to Mr. Arafat. "Israel continues challenging the international community."
In a statement tonight, Israel's defense minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, said, "We want the fact-finding team to operate according to the principles of justice, and first and foremost to examine how Jenin turned into the `suicide bomber
capital.' "
He said it was surprising that the United Nations had not called for investigations after deadly Palestinian suicide bombings.
Israeli officials said tonight that Palestinians in Jenin were digging up bodies of those who died before the Israeli attack and adding them to a mass grave of more than two dozen people who were killed during the operation. More than 40 bodies of people killed in the fighting have been identified by hospital officials in Jenin.
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