US tells Israel to withdraw from invaded town

America and Britain have called on Israel to withdraw its troops from the Arab town of Beit Jala, which its forces invaded early on Tuesday in the first prolonged act of re-occupation in 11 months of Middle East fighting.

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Phil Reeves: Israeli troops retake Beit Jala

America and Britain have called on Israel to withdraw its troops from the Arab town of Beit Jala, which its forces invaded early on Tuesday in the first prolonged act of re-occupation in 11 months of Middle East fighting.

The demand came after Israeli officials indicated that their armed forces were settling in for an indefinite period, despite international warnings that the invasion would only worsen the conflict. They were fortifying their positions last night. As the army dug in, barely 10 miles away tens of thousands of Palestinians were on the streets of Ramallah for the funeral of Abu Ali Mustafa, the first PLO leader to be assassinated by Israel in this conflict.

The double blow of the killing of a political leader ­ the 63-year-old head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who was blown apart by Israeli helicopter missiles as he sat as his desk ­ and the Beit Jala invasion has demolished the already feeble chances of a diplomatic solution to the war in the near future.

Fighting continued intermittently after Israeli forces moved into Beit Jala in the early hours. They quickly took control of the town centre, including a Lutheran church and an orphanage with 45 Palestinian children. A curfew was imposed on the area, which had been the source of frequent shooting on to the Jewish settlement of Gilo, at the edge of Jerusalem.

By midnight, violence was building within earshot of Jerusalem. There were reports that Palestinian guerrillas fired mortars at Gilo, attacks that caused no injuries but seemed certain to draw a fierce response from Israeli forces. Ominously, members of the Palestinian Tanzim militia were seen entering the Beit Jala area and asking residents to leave. Israeli helicopters hovered overhead, and there were sounds of gunfire.

Israeli officials insisted that the occupation was temporary, and was intended to flush out "snipers' nests" that they claimed damaged 31 apartments, and injured one Israeli man, in attacks on Monday night alone. More than a dozen Israelis in Gilo have been injured during the intifada.

That explanation did not head off international ire over the decision of Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister, generally to step up the pressure on Yasser Arafat with a series of belligerent measures. These include using F-16 bombers against Palestinian targets and assassinating more than 60 people using death squads. America ­ which always handles Israel with kid gloves ­ made clear its disapproval.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, released a surprisingly sharp statement accusing the Israelis of undermining agreements by invading Beit Jala. It stressed Israel's right to security but added: "Actions of the kind we have seen this weekend are excessive, disproportionate, and threaten to stoke the cycle of violence."

The decision to enter Beit Jala was taken by by a majority vote of the Israeli cabinet, which was opposed by the Foreign Secretary, Shimon Peres, who has long been out of step with his hardline Prime Minister over handling of the conflict. Mr Peres had sought to set up talks with Mr Arafat in the coming days; these now seem unlikely to take place.