the Nativity in Bethlehem, and that 200 Palestinian gunmen trapped inside will be allowed to leave to another country.
"We have approached the Vatican and told them that we want to respect the holiness of the place," explained Israel’s Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in an interview with the Cable News Network (CNN).
He said the gunmen will have the choice between leaving unarmed to another country, or stand trial in Israel. Although "some of them are murders", Israel would let them go to avoid further bloodshed, the minister added. There was no reaction yet from the gunmen, who some Israeli officials suggested were waiting "on clearance" from the Palestinian authority.
US REACTS
In a first reaction, United States Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said the plan shows that "Israel is looking onto ways to end (the stand-off) without bloodshed." Peres also suggested to hold a regional conference about the Middle East crisis, amid calls from Palestinians for an international peacekeeping mission.
The Israeli proposal came as United States Secretary of State Colin Powell ended a three hour meeting in Ramallah with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"We told him we would like to see peacekeepers to allow for the protection of Palestinians and Israeli’s as well as to allow the rebuilding of the police force, which has been shattered by the Israeli’s," said Palestinian cabinet member Nabeel Sha’ath on CNN. He said the delegation also pressured Powell to make sure Israel will withdraw from the Palestinian territories.
DESPERATE
Asked if their can be any justification for the suicide bombings that have rocked Israel, Sha’ath said that those carrying out these attacks "are desperate people who have been willing to die for what they see as (the) Israeli’s occupation."
Speaking briefly with reporters in front Arafat’s beleaguered headquarters, Powell described his meeting with the Palestinian leader as "useful and constructive" but said that more has to be done to achieve a cease-fire.
He later had a one hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, but officials attending the talks said that Israel’s leader had refused to give "an official timetable" as to when the military offensive would end.
OPERATIONS CONTINUE
But Foreign Minister Peres suggested it may take "10 days to two weeks" to end the operations. He rejected accusations that Israel was deliberate hiding massacres in the refugee camp of Jenin, which has been off limits to reporters, amid reports that the Israeli army is cleaning up bodies.
Palestinians claim at least 500 civilians were killed in the troubled area, but the Israeli Government has strongly denied this figure, saying that dozens of people were killed, in house to house fighting with Palestinian militants. There were indications Sunday, April 14, that Arab countries are increasingly concerned about the plight of Palestinians.
"I think that the extension of the Israeli military operation goes against the world community and the UN resolution," said Adel Al-Jubeir, the adviser to the Saudi crown prince told CNN’s Late Edition. "We are very concerned about the plight of the Palestinians, 1600 have died and 50 percent live below the poverty line."
ARAFAT POPULAR
King Abdullah of Jordan added that the conflict has made Arafat " now the most popular figure in the Arab street." However the ranking Democratic congressman on the House International Relations Committee, Tom Lantos defended the Israeli military operations. "You can not negotiate terrorism, you have to defeat it," he said.
His Republican colleague and Committee Chairman Henry Hyde suggested "a Marshall Plan" for Palestinians, if and when the violence stops. But as the fighting and the war of words continued Sunday, April 14, psychologists expressed concern about the impact of the conflict on Palestinian and Israeli children.
Dr. Danny Brom, an Israeli psychologist said that "some kids" who witnessed a terrorist attack "need to get over that picture of seeing a head rolling of a body of a suicide bomber." He also noted some youngsters have become more violent in schools and that stress related problems were on the rise in Israel.
At the same time many Palestinian children are said to be afraid to sleep alone at night.
