AL KHALIL, April 29: Israeli forces thrust into the West Bank city of Al Khalil on Monday, killing nine people, ahead of talks on a US plan to end Israel’s month-long siege of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s compound.

An Israeli field commander said soldiers detained about 200 people for questioning in the sweep for Palestinian fighters and arms, two days after guerillas killed four Israelis, including a five-year-old girl, in a Jewish settlement near Al Khalil.

An Israeli sniper shot dead a Palestinian guerilla in the grounds of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity and a Palestinian official said 18 civilians might leave the besieged shrine.

Israel launched the Al Khalil incursion hours after accepting a proposal by US President George W. Bush that would restore Arafat’s freedom of movement and remove Israeli forces from Ramallah.

The Jewish state was still resisting a UN mission to the ravaged Jenin refugee camp as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan strove to overcome its objections to the fact-finding team that has been cooling its heels in Geneva since Wednesday.

Under Bush’s plan, Israel will let Arafat travel freely. US and British security personnel will guard six men whose extradition Israel had demanded.

Palestinian officials in the West Bank met British experts on Monday to discuss practical details.

The officials said the men might be jailed in Jericho, the only West Bank city unscathed in the assault Israel launched on March 29.

Palestinian security sources said nine people were killed after Israeli forces backed by helicopter gunships surged into Al Khalil and began house-to-house searches.

Colonel Moshe Hager, an Israeli field commander, said while talking to Israel Radio: “The city is now under (our) control and curfew...and we are preparing for the next round of arrests.”

Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles prowled the hilly streets of the town, where some 400 militant Jewish settlers live in heavily guarded enclaves among 120,000 Palestinians.

Troops ransacked homes, smashing equipment and emptying cupboards, amid loudspeaker warnings a curfew was in force.—Reuters