Israeli tanks leave Ramallah as U.S. envoy visits

RAMALLAH, West Bank (CNN) -- More than 40 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles began pulling out of Ramallah late Thursday, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered them to redeploy "because the mission has been completed successfully."

Palestinian sources reported the tanks and armored personnel carriers were withdrawing from the West Bank town in all directions.

Shortly before the withdrawal, Palestinian sources said two tanks were hit by Palestinian-fired rocket-propelled grenades. The Israel Defense Forces would neither confirm nor deny the report.

The pullback came as Sharon hosted U.S. Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni at his Jerusalem home. Zinni arrived Thursday on orders from President Bush to try to get Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table and restore calm after 17 months of fighting.

Zinni earlier met with representatives of the European Union and Russia, who have been trying to work out a cease-fire on the ground. "It was a very good meeting," one source familiar with the session said.

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Palestinian Authority officials had said they would not take part in any peace talks until Israel withdraws its forces from the West Bank and Gaza, where Israel in the past week has carried out its largest offensive since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. About 20,000 Israeli troops moved into Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza starting Monday.

George Mitchell -- the former U.S. senator whose commission laid the groundwork for an immediate cease-fire followed by a cessation of Jewish settlement construction in the territories and the resumption of peace talks -- said it is imperative for both sides to bring an end to the cycle of violence.

"There isn't any way out of this on the current track and they've got to find a way to get back to the negotiating table," Mitchell said.

Nabil abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said Israeli forces must first withdraw from the Palestinian territories if there are to be peace talks.

"Without their immediate withdrawal, there won't be any connection or any meeting with any Israeli before they stop their aggression and their withdrawal from all the cities, including Bethlehem and Ramallah and the Gaza cities," said Rudeineh.

Sharon's office issued a statement ordering Israeli commanders to "redeploy in the Ramallah area because the mission has been completed successfully."

The statement said Sharon is satisfied with the mission, what was accomplished and the way Israeli troops conducted themselves. He said he hoped that completing the mission would "enable us to go forward with the diplomatic effort to reaching an immediate, total cease-fire."

The Israeli government has said its operations in the Palestinian territories were intended to attack what they called the "terrorist infrastructure" endangering Israelis. Palestinians have said many innocents have been killed in the operations and that the military campaign itself is a form of terror.

Meanwhile, violence continued Thursday in Gaza and the West Bank, with deaths on both sides. In incidents in Tulkarem and Ramallah, seven Palestinians were killed Thursday. Three Israeli soldiers were killed in an explosion in Gaza.

Brigades leader killed

Palestinian security sources said an Israeli helicopter struck a farm near Tulkarem, killing a leading Palestinian militant and another man. They identified the dead as Mutasem Makhluf -- the leader in Tulkarem of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a military wing of Arafat's Fatah movement -- and Maher Bilbesi.

The Israeli army claimed responsibility for Mutasem's killing, saying he was responsible for preparing and carrying out attacks against Israelis.

Early in the day, Palestinian security forces said three other Palestinians had been killed in an exchange of gunfire with Israeli troops.

Later, those same sources said the shell of a burned-out car had been found in Balaa north of Tulkarem. The sources said three or four Palestinians believed to have been in the car were kidnapped by Israeli soldiers, blindfolded and taken away in Israeli army jeeps.

The IDF said the men were members of Tanzim, another military wing of Fatah, and were arrested after authorities discovered their car was loaded with explosives. The IDF detonated the vehicle.

In Gaza, meanwhile, three Israeli soldiers died when a massive explosion went off beneath their Merkava tank on the Netzarim road, the IDF said.

The blast was the second time Palestinians have been able to blow up a Merkava, which is considered one of the world's best-protected. Palestinians pierced the Merkava's armor for the first time in a mid-February attack.

The IDF said one Israeli soldier was killed by the blast, and two others burned to death inside the tank. Two soldiers were injured in the explosion and evacuated, the IDF said.

Earlier, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, five Palestinians died in clashes with Israeli troops in Ramallah -- including three Palestinian National Security force members and two civilians. The Red Crescent said 10 other Palestinians were injured in the exchange of gunfire.

In Washington on Wednesday, President Bush expressed strong hope that his Middle East envoy will succeed in bringing Israelis and Palestinians closer to the negotiating table, and delivered measured criticism of Israel's military crackdown in the West Bank and Gaza.

"I understand someone trying to defend themselves and to fight terror, but the recent actions aren't helpful," Bush said.

Bush said Zinni's goal is to achieve the conditions necessary for a cease-fire required by the Tenet plan.

Zinni has "a lot of work to do, but if I didn't think he would make progress, I wouldn't have asked him to go."