By Amos Harel  
The Israel Defense Forces is expected to hand over control of Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority this week, and military sources said yesterday that control may be transferred as early as tomorrow.
Meanwhile, settlers yesterday vacated nine illegally-built homes inhabited last week in the Amuna outpost, near the settlement of Ofra, north of Ramallah.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas agreed on the transfer in a meeting a few weeks ago. Sharon told Abbas that control of Qalqilyah would be transferred a week after Bethlehem. The transfers were delayed due to a series of shooting attacks in the West Bank last month, in which three Israeli citizens were killed

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