RAMALLAH, West Bank ? A diplomatic convoy arrived Wednesday at Yasser Arafat’s compound in apparent preparation for transferring six wanted men to a West Bank prison, paving the way for the Palestinian leader’s release from Israeli confinement, a Palestinian official said.

About a dozen U.S. and British diplomatic vehicles, some of them armored, arrived at nightfall at Arafat’s headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, ready to take the prisoners from Ramallah to the West Bank town of Jericho. Israeli soldiers were seen packing up gear in advance of their own departure, and the streets of Ramallah were largely deserted.

In Gaza, four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including a 2-year-old girl. In the West Bank town of Bethlehem, an 11-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and two other youngsters were critically wounded in a mysterious explosion near a Palestinian police station. The army said it was investigating the blast.

Also Wednesday, Palestinian officials said a total of 52 bodies up four from last week have been recovered at the Jenin camp, scene of a fierce April 3-11 battle between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen and subject of intense international scrutiny. Palestinians alleged Israeli troops carried out a massacre of civilians, while Israel said most of the dead were gunmen killed in combat.

Mohammed Rashid, the Arafat adviser, said the departure of the six prisoners would set the stage for Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank town of Ramallah, including Arafat’s headquarters. “Ramallah will be freed of tanks immediately after the prisoners leave the compound,” Rashid said.

An Israeli army official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the prisoners would be driven to Jericho in diplomatic vehicles. After that, he said, the Israeli military could pull out of Ramallah relatively quickly.

Israel agreed in principle on Sunday to release the Palestinian leader from five months of increasingly stringent confinement first to the town of Ramallah, then to the compound, then to a few rooms in his office building.

Under a deal with the United States, the six prisoners will be guarded in Jericho by American and British wardens.

The six wanted men have been holed up with Arafat and about 300 people since Israel’s invasion March 29. In a lightning trial at the compound with police as judges, four were convicted of the killing of Israeli Cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi last October. The other two are Ahmed Saadat, leader of the radical PLO faction that carried out the assassination, and Fuad Shobaki, alleged mastermind of a seaborne Palestinian arms shipment intercepted by the Israeli navy in January.

The violence in Gaza began early Wednesday when a roadside bomb was detonated near an Israeli tank deployed at the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, along the Israeli-Egyptian border, the military said.

Palestinian witnesses said tanks then fired machine guns and shells at a nearby neighborhood, killing a 2-year-old girl and a deaf-mute man in their homes. Palestinians said tanks then drove into the Rafah refugee camp, prompting an exchange of fire in which two more Palestinians were killed.

The military said soldiers spotted the Palestinians who set off the roadside bomb, fired on them with light arms and hit one of them. A second attacker was captured, the army said.

At the Jenin camp, Fahri Turkman, head of the local emergency committee, reiterated allegations that Israeli troops carried out a massacre even though the number of bodies found so far appeared to support Israel’s version.

“The number (of dead) will increase because we are missing so many people and we don’t know if they are in jail or under the rubble,” Turkman said. He said it was difficult to put together a list of the missing because Israel has not handed camp officials a list of names of those detained in Israel’s offensive.

Earlier Wednesday, another Palestinian official, Kadoura Moussa of Arafat’s Fatah movement, said 58 bodies had been recovered so far. However, officials at Jenin Hospital said they had received a total of 52 bodies, and provided a list of names, which Moussa failed to do.

The Boston-based Physicians for Human Rights said in a preliminary report Wednesday that as of last week, the Jenin Hospital had received 30 bodies from the camp.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan was considering canceling a U.N. fact-finding mission to the Jenin camp because of Israel’s refusal to cooperate with the team’s mandate was changed. Annan was looking for advice from the Security Council on Wednesday before making a decision.

In Bethlehem, meanwhile, two Palestinian policemen emerged from the Church of the Nativity on Wednesday, a day after 26 civilians and members of the security forces walked out of the besieged compound. Nearly 200 others, including two dozen Palestinians wanted by Israel, remain holed up in one of Christianity’s holiest shrines, and there were no signs the monthlong standoff was ending.

One of the policeman emerging from the church had been injured by Israeli fire. The wounded man and another policeman, who had fallen ill, walked out of the compound under escort of priests who handed them to Israeli troops.

Israel and the Palestinians were still at odds regarding about 30 gunmen still in the church. Israel insisted that they either surrender or accept exile; the Palestinians proposed that they be taken to Gaza.