RAMALLAH, West Bank ? Israeli tanks and helicopters on Tuesday shelled a heavily fortified Palestinian security headquarters in an all-night assault to flush out top fugitives. Fighting raged outside Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity and Israel’s prime minister proposed exile for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Four Palestinian civilians were killed in fighting in Ramallah and Bethlehem and West Bank security chief Jibril Rajoub said at least 20 of the hundreds of people trapped in his compound were wounded in the Israeli assault.

In biblical Bethlehem, Israeli helicopter gunships hovering over Manger Square exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen near the Church of the Nativity, built over Jesus’ traditional birth grotto.

Sharon, meanwhile, said Tuesday he has proposed that European Union envoy Miguel Moratinos or other diplomats fly Arafat into exile, raising the idea in public for the first time. Sharon said such a step would still require Cabinet approval.

“I told him (Moratinos), if they would like, they will fly with a helicopter and will take him (Arafat) from here,” Sharon said during a tour of West Bank army bases, in remarks carried by Israel Radio. “He (Arafat) will not be able to return.”

Arafat has been in Israeli confinement in an office in his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah since Friday. In announcing the decision last week, Sharon left open the possibility that Arafat could be expelled at a later stage.

Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said that Arafat “will not leave Palestine _ this is the final return.”

In Spain, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said it was time for Sharon and Arafat to move aside. “These two people are both more than 75 years old and have lived this conflict for a very long time _ too long if you ask me,” Solana told Spain’s Cadena SER radio. “It wouldn’t be bad if they step down in favor of other people.”

Tuesday’s fighting came as Israel widened its five-day military offensive, “Operation Protective Wall,” against Palestinian militants responsible for a wave of anti-Israeli terror attacks, including six suicide bombings in the past six days.

Early Tuesday, Israeli tanks rolled into the West Bank towns of Tulkarem and Bethlehem. Israeli forces already control the towns of Ramallah and Qalqiliya.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, a moderate, said the offensive would last about three to four weeks, the first senior Israeli official to give a timeframe. However, Sharon has said the campaign was open-ended.

In Ramallah, about 700 Palestinian suspects have been rounded up since Friday, the army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey, said. In all, the bodies of 25 Palestinians killed in the Israeli incursion in Ramallah were stored at a hospital morgue, with doctors saying Israeli troops have barred them from burying the dead.

On Tuesday, a bulldozer was tearing up the asphalt outside the hospital parking lot, and hospital officials threatened to bury the dead there in protest.

A 56-year-old Palestinian woman who had a cast removed from her leg was shot and wounded, apparently by an Israeli sniper, as she left the hospital, said Dr. Hosni Atari. Soldiers prevented medics from treating her and she died, Atari said.

In the Ramallah suburb of Beituniya, Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships shelled the Palestinian Preventive Security Service headquarters in an all-night assault, after about 400 people inside refused to surrender.

Rajoub, the head of the security agency, said the situation there is “very, very bad,” but that he ordered his men not to give up.

Kitrey said he believed top militants were being sheltered in the compound, a claim Rajoub denied.

After daybreak, there were no signs of movement in the compound. Two buildings were blackened by fire, and holes were visible in the walls of several other buildings in the compound.

In Bethlehem, just south of Jerusalem, the heaviest fighting raged around Manger Square, near the Church of the Nativity, built over Jesus’ traditional birth grotto. An Israeli helicopter gunship hovering over Manger Square exchanged fire with about a dozen gunmen near the church, according to live footage broadcast by the local Shepherds TV station. The gunmen also came under fire from Israeli tanks deployed some distance downhill from the square.

Nearby, there was a heavy exchange of fire outside the Santa Maria Convent run by the Salesians, a Roman Catholic order. Church officials denied a report by the Rome-based missionary news service Misna that a 65-year-old Italian priest, Jacques Amateis, was killed in the convent. The priest was well, officials said.

The military said gunmen were shooting from the convent at Israel soldiers.

Near the convent, 64-year-old Samieh Abdeh and her 38-year-old son Khaled were wounded by Israeli fire at their home, Abdeh’s son Sami said. Israeli troops prevented ambulances from reaching the home, and the two bled to death, Sami Abdeh said.

The Israeli military was not immediately available for comment on the deaths in Ramallah and Bethlehem. Israeli soldiers prevented a group of about two dozen European diplomats from entering Ramallah to check on European citizens there.

In an appeal to U.S. President George W. Bush, the leaders of Christian denominations in the Holy Land asked to “stop immediately the inhuman tragedy that is taking place in this Holy Land in our Palestinian towns and villages.”

Israeli forces have entered Bethlehem several times in the past 18 months of fighting, but kept a distance from the Church of the Nativity, one of Christianity’s holiest shrines. Palestinian gunmen frequently use the area as a refuge.

Earlier Tuesday, a 60-year-old Palestinian security guard was shot to death in Bethlehem and an Israeli soldier was killed by a Palestinian sniper near the city.

In other incursions Tuesday, Israeli troops also moved into the town of Beit Jalla and the village of Al Khader near Bethlehem. In Beit Jalla, Israeli forces imposed a curfew and occupied buildings commanding the high ground over Bethlehem. Seven foreign protesters were injured, none seriously, when an Israeli soldier fired into the ground in front of them as they marched in Beit Jalla.

Despite the military offensive, attacks on Israelis continued.

Near downtown Jerusalem, a Palestinian driver detonated explosives in his car as he was being stopped by police, killing himself and a police officer late Monday. Police said the driver was planning an attack in the center of the city. The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a militia linked to Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility.

Also late Monday, Palestinians opened fire on an Israeli car in the West Bank, wounding three members of a family. Israeli soldiers fired back, killing one of the gunmen, the military said.

In the Jewish settlement of Ramon in the West Bank, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on a home early Tuesday, lightly injuring one resident before he was shot dead by Israeli forces, police said.

Near the Jewish settlement of Kohav Hashahar, two Palestinian motorists were killed in a shooting ambush. Israel Radio said police were checking whether the two Palestinian motorists were attacked by Jewish extremists.