Israeli commandos swoop down on Hamas hide-out

? Israeli troops swooped down on a Hamas hide-out in the West Bank’s largest city Friday, while Orthodox Christians in biblical Bethlehem marked a somber Good Friday with no sign of a break in the siege of the Church of the Nativity, now entering its second month.

Also Friday, Israel and the Palestinians cautiously welcomed a U.S. proposal for an international Mideast peace conference this summer, but stopped short of promising to attend. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon aims for a long-term interim agreement with the Palestinians, not a final deal, and will propose that when he meets with President Bush next week, a Sharon adviser said.

And in the West Bank town of Ramallah, the Palestinian Cabinet on Friday discussed the fate of two senior officials imprisoned as part of a U.S.-brokered deal that led to Yasser Arafat’s release from Israeli confinement this week, and Palestinian officials said they expected the two to be freed soon.

In the Israeli raid in Nablus, an activist in the Islamic militant group Hamas and an Israeli soldier were killed, while two Palestinians and two soldiers were wounded. Elsewhere in Nablus, a Palestinian policeman was killed in a clash with Israeli troops.

The Israeli raid began at about 4 a.m. and ended some five hours later, witnesses and the army said. Heavy gunfire erupted when Israeli forces converged on a three-story building on the edge of Nablus’ Old City or casbah, which was the scene of fierce fighting last month between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen.

The targeted building was in Nablus’ main commercial district, and about 16 surrounding shops were destroyed in the fighting, neighborhood residents said. They said they cowered in inner rooms of their apartments as the Israelis fired tank shells and heavy machine guns. The army said two bomb factories were found in the building, as well as a car full of weapons.

Adnan Asfour, one of the Hamas leaders in Nablus, said the raid was counterproductive. “What’s going on is increasing our determination to continue our struggle, until we achieve our goals, such as an independent state,” he said.

In Bethlehem, four Palestinian policemen, weakened by lack of food, emerged Friday from the church built over Jesus’ traditional birth grotto. One was treated at an Israeli hospital, and three were being questioned, the military said.

About 30 Palestinian gunmen and about 200 others remain holed up inside the church. The standoff, which began April 2, cast a pall over Orthodox Christians’ celebrations of Holy Week, which fall about a month later than Easter observances under the Western church calendar.

On Thursday, 10 foreign activists carrying packs of food and medicine wriggled through coils of barbed wire, outran stunned Israeli soldiers and ducked into a small, dark passageway into the church.

Kristen Schurr, a 33-year-old activist from New York City, said she spent her first night in the ornately decorated birth grotto below the church’s central altar. A Palestinian gave Schurr a floor mat, blanket and pillow. “It’s funny that even in this dreadful situation, they are still so hospitable and kind,” she said.

In the heavily Christian Palestinian towns of Beit Jalla and Beit Sahour, adjoining Bethlehem, the army lifted a curfew for several hours Friday afternoon. Local Christians moved traditional Good Friday services from the evening to the afternoon, to coincide with the period the curfew was being lifted.

In Bethlehem, Israel is insisting that the armed men inside the Church of the Nativity surrender or accept exile. Palestinian officials had proposed taking them to the Gaza Strip. Bethlehem’s Palestinian mayor, Hanna Nasser, suggested solving the standoff with the same formula that ended the siege of Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah a day earlier.

The Palestinian leader emerged Thursday from 34 days of effective house arrest in a few rooms inside his compound.

To break the deadlock at Arafat’s headquarters, the two sides agreed to allow six wanted Palestinians to be transported to a Palestinian jail in Jericho to be guarded by U.S. and British wardens. British officials confirmed Friday that the imprisonment would be supervised by a former commander of Maze prison, a notorious lockup in Northern Ireland that held many IRA fighters.

But some Palestinian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Friday they expected that two of the six will be freed soon.

The officials said that under the U.S. deal, the fate of Ahmed Saadat and Fuad Shobaki was left in the hands of the Palestinian legal system.

Israeli officials disputed the claim, saying they were assured by the United States that Saadat and Shobaki would remain locked up as a condition for freeing Arafat.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that “the arrangement is to keep these people in custody.” Boucher said that anything other than that would have to be discussed.

However, in Israel, officials close to the negotiations said parts of the deal had been left purposely vague to allow for a quick agreement on getting Arafat released from Israeli confinement.

Israel had initially demanded the extradition of Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and Shobaki, a senior Arafat aide. Israel accuses Saadat of masterminding the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in October, and alleges Shobaki financed a large shipment of illegal weapons

Arafat, speaking to reporters Friday, said he welcomed the U.S. plan for an international conference this summer, proposed by Secretary of State Colin Powell, with backing from the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

Arafat said he had not been informed of the plan by the United States. “Until now, it is only an idea and we welcome it, but we have still not agreed to it,” Arafat said, adding that he would consult with Arab leaders before making a decision. Arab League foreign ministers are to meet next week in Cairo.

Israel also said it was too early to commit to the idea. “We don’t know the details yet of what Secretary Powell spoke about,” said government spokesman Gideon Meir.

Israeli officials noted that in March, Sharon himself proposed a regional peace conference Israel’s response to a new Arab peace initiative under which Israel would withdraw from all territories it occupied in the 1967 war, in exchange for comprehensive peace with the Arab world.

At the time, Sharon said he wanted Israel, the Palestinians and Arab states to attend a regional conference, while his advisers said Arafat branded by Israel as a terrorist would not be welcome. Sharon staunchly opposes giving back all the territory captured in 1967.

According to the U.S. plan, the delegations at the conference would be led by foreign ministers, rather than heads of state, getting around the issue of Arafat’s attendance.

Zalman Shoval, a Sharon adviser, said that in his trip to Washington next week, the prime minister would propose a long-term interim deal with the Palestinians, “with progress toward ultimate goals depending on how the Palestinians react.” The Palestinians have repeatedly said they will not settle for another partial deal.