Erakat blasts envoy for US opposition to Israeli wall hearing

A top Palestinian official on Saturday told a visiting US envoy that the Palestinians are angry at America's opposition to a court hearing on the legality of a massive barrier Israel is building to seal off the West Bank.

The expansive complex of trenches, fences, walls and razor wire, has become one of the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and both sides see the upcoming court hearing as an important battleground for determining the project's fate.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat told US State Department official David Satterfield that Palestinian leaders are upset with a US position that the International Court of Justice should not consider the Israeli-built barrier.

The US is trying to "shut the door in our faces," Erekat told reporters.

Early Israeli troops on jeeps and a tank raided the biblical town of Jericho, forcing residents to remain confined to their homes at the start of the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Military speaking on condition of anonymity, said troops had entered the town for the first time in months on a small, pinpoint operation to arrest fugitives.

"The shooting is out of hand. We are confined to our homes. There is a lot of shooting," said Erekat, a resident of Jericho.

Jericho been almost untouched by three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, and most army arrests are conducted without a shot being fired.

Israel's project is about one-quarter complete and will eventually stretch 750km. In some places its route roughly matches the West Bank boundary that Israeli forces crossed in the 1967 Mideast war. In other parts it zigzags deep into West Bank land.

Israel it's crucial to stopping suicide bombers. The Palestinians say it's a brazen move to grab land and to crush chances for an independent Palestinian state.

The court in The Hague, Netherlands, is to begin hearings on the barrier project on Feb. 23.

Both sides submitted arguments to the court by Friday's deadline. Israel argued the judges have no jurisdiction, while the Palestinians said construction on occupied West Bank land is illegal.

The administration of US President George W. Bush opposes parts of the barrier that dip into the West Bank. But it submitted a statement to the court saying only states involved, and not the UN General Assembly, can determine whether the court could rule in disputes among countries.

The court is the highest judicial body of the UN and took on the case at the request of the General Assembly. Its ruling on the barrier's legality is nonbinding, but both sides have invested great effort in the case because the outcome is likely to influence international opinion.

Several besides Israel -- namely the US and Britain -- oppose the hearings.

"I cannot understand it," Erekat said. "We seek to use diplomacy against the wall in going to the [United Nations] Security Council and the court of justice, and we find these countries, the US and Britain, trying to shut the door in our faces."

Erekat that Satterfield told him that the "issue will not be resolved through courts."

In Washington on Friday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the barrier was an issue for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israeli Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said he hopes objections from the US and other countries would force the case to be dropped.

"Israel is not alone in its arguments and we hope these arguments will be seriously considered by the court," he said.

Meanwhile, a small Israeli force acting on a tip moved quickly into Bethlehem on Saturday, arrested two suspected militants and left before sunrise, the second quick raid in the West Bank town after a deadly suicide bombing.

The swift action followed a 12-hour military raid on Friday to destroy the home of the Palestinian policeman who had blown himself up on a bus in Jerusalem the day before, killing 11 people.