RAMALLAH, West Bank ? After a first round of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, U.S. mediator Anthony Zinni was upbeat Friday, saying he believed the two sides could begin implementing a cease-fire in the coming days.

Yet the violence continued; nine Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including a woman and four children who died in a mysterious explosion.

Israelis and Palestinians remained at odds over the terms of a truce, with Israel rejecting a Palestinian demand for an Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian-run territory ahead of the resumption of cease-fire negotiations. On Friday, Israel withdrew from three West Bank towns, but remained in two others.

Zinni met for 90 minutes late Friday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat following separate talks Thursday and Friday with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Israel’s foreign and defense ministers.

Zinni, whose previous two truce missions failed amid spiraling violence, told reporters that the meetings so far had been “extremely positive.”

“I think in the next few days that we can start on my mission and the implementation of the plan that we have brought,” Zinni told reporters.

Bloodiest period yet

However, the envoy arrived during the bloodiest period yet in 18 months of fighting. In March alone, 188 people were killed on the Palestinian side and 62 people on the Israeli side. March also saw the largest Israeli military operation in a generation, with Israel deploying 20,000 troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in response to a string of Palestinian bombings and shootings. On Friday, under heavy U.S. pressure, Israeli tanks pulled out of the West Bank towns of Ramallah, Tulkarem and Qalqiliya, but remained in Bethlehem and Beit Sahour and ringed the nearby refugee camps of Dheisheh and Aida.

During Israel’s three-day occupation of Ramallah, troops enforced a strict curfew and exchanged fire with local gunmen. On Friday, thousands of Palestinians, who had been confined to their homes, poured into the streets to bury four of the 13 Palestinians killed in the fighting since Tuesday. Visible in the crowd of mourners was a preschooler who, sitting on his father’s shoulders, held up a toy gun.

Elsewhere, Ramallah residents inspected damage caused by Israeli troops. Tanks had flattened parked cars, knocked out the corner of a building near central Manara Square and punched large holes in several inner walls of a high school.

‘Total Israeli withdrawal’

Palestinian officials said Friday that they would not hold cease-fire talks with Israel until Israeli troops had left all Palestinian-controlled territory, known as Area A under interim peace agreements.

“Before holding any meetings with the Israelis … we want a total Israeli withdrawal from Area A,” said Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a senior Arafat adviser. “Negotiating with the Israelis in the current situation means that we are negotiating with them under the threat of the Israeli tanks.”

The United States backed the call for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas, with Secretary of State Colin Powell raising the issue this week in a phone call with Sharon.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, Powell said that he hoped Israel’s pullback of troops and tanks on the West Bank would continue while Zinni tries to set up security talks with Israel and the Palestinians.

“The aim is to get them talking to each other,” Powell said.

“What the Israelis said they would do, and I have this on high-level assurance, is executing staged withdrawals, and we are seeing staged withdrawals,” Powell said. “There is nothing permanent about staged withdrawals.”

No intention

Israeli officials said Israel has no intention of remaining in Palestinian areas indefinitely and is eager to reach a truce, but cannot withdraw for the time being because the Palestinian Authority is not doing enough to rein in Palestinian militants.

“The army went in to these areas to prevent the next terrorist attack against Israelis, without any intention of staying in any of those places,” said Israeli Cabinet Minister Tsipi Livni.

In Friday’s bloodshed, a Palestinian woman, three of her children and a nephew were killed when an explosion went off near their donkey cart on the outskirts of the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza.

Palestinian security officials said they believed the blast was caused by explosives planted by Israeli troops to prevent militants from reaching the nearby border with Israel. Israeli soldiers had withdrawn from the area earlier Friday.

The Israeli military said it had nothing to do with the explosion.

The victims were identified as Zeina Awawdeh, 43, her daughters Dahani, 14, and Amaneh, 16, her son Salem, 8, and a nephew, Tareq, 12. Awawdeh’s 11-year-old son Ibrahim and another nephew were hurt.

A Palestinian doctor said Israeli soldiers fired at one of the ambulances that arrived at the scene, hitting it with three bullets but injuring no one. The army did not comment on the charge.

Endless retaliation

A heavy exchange of fire erupted between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank city of Hebron after dark Friday, killing one Palestinian, injuring seven other Palestinians and wounding an Israeli soldier.

Near the Jewish settlement of Dugit, troops killed a Palestinian and arrested another, the army said. Soldiers found several grenades and tools for cutting fences.

In southern Gaza, Palestinian security sources said Israeli troops fired machine guns early Friday at a group of shepherds passing near the border with Israel. A 28-year-old Palestinian policeman was killed, doctors said. The army said soldiers opened fire when they saw Palestinians trying to plant a bomb.

Israeli tanks also fired three shells toward a Palestinian border police in southern Gaza, and the body of a policeman was found Friday in the rubble.

In the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, four gunmen killed a 25-year-old Palestinian men they suspected of having helped Israel track down wanted militants, security officials said.

North of Qalqiliya, in Nablus, a militia associated with Arafat’s Fatah party, the Al Aqsa Brigades, said its gunmen killed two Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel.