Israeli forces are set to withdraw today from the Palestinian towns of Bethlehem and Beit Jala, south of Jerusalem, in the first stage of a gradual pull back from the major West Bank cities they entered nine days ago.
The terms for the pull-out were brokered by US CIA officials at a lengthy and acrimonious meeting in Tel Aviv yesterday between the most senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials.
Although Bethlehem has been the scene of some of the fiercest West Bank fighting in recent days, it was apparently favoured by Israel as the location for the first pull-out because of the damage to Israel's image being caused by television footage of shooting around Christian holy sites in the city.
Fifty Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli military onslaught began, with five more people killed yesterday. Three Hamas gunmen were shot dead by Israeli troops as they tried to infiltrate a settlement in the Gaza Strip; a Palestinian security officer was killed during gun battles at Bethlehem's Aida refugee camp, and an Israeli Beduin man was shot when he was spotted attempting to cut through fencing on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza.
Under the terms of yesterday's agreement, the Palestinian Authority's security forces will deploy today as the Israelis depart, and attempt to prevent attacks on Israeli targets. If that arrangement proves effective in Bethlehem and Beit Jala, the idea is to repeat it in other West Bank cities in the days ahead. If not, the withdrawal process will likely stall.
The Israelis entered the Palestinian-held cities and imposed severe curfews after the October 17th assassination in Jerusalem of the Tourism Minister, Rehavam Ze'evi, by gunmen from the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Among the aims was to track down Mr Ze'evi's killers, who still remain at large.
The incursions have prompted growing international criticism, which culminated overnight on Thursday with a statement from the UN Security Council endorsing calls for "an immediate withdrawal of all Israeli forces".
The council also offered its backing for an effort by a team of diplomatic envoys here, including US, European and UN officials, who have been urging both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to adopt a package of measures designed to achieve a ceasefire and an eventual return to the negotiating table.
What was most striking about the Security Council statement was its unanimity; the United States, which routinely blocks UN efforts to censure Israel, placed itself firmly with the critics.
Privately, senior officials in the Bush administration have been assuring Israel for some weeks that they do not take Mr Arafat's public expressions of support for the anti-terror coalition, and his claims to be cracking down on Palestinian militants, at face value.
However, when recent similarly private requests to Israel to avoid weakening that coalition by escalating the conflict with the Palestinians were ignored by the Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, Mr Bush went public with the demand for an urgent Israeli withdrawal.