Israel's security cabinet decided early Sunday, September 30, to ease its sealing off of the Palestinian territories, starting Sunday with the autonomous Palestinian town of Jericho in the West Bank, Israeli public radio reported.
The move is in line with decisions taken at a meeting Wednesday between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat.
Peres and Arafat agreed on a ceasefire which has since been repeatedly broken, and the security cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met late Saturday to decide what to do about the breaches, Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin told AFP before the four-hour meeting.
The cabinet decided to continue to apply the ceasefire for at least 48 hours, the radio said, adding that if breaches continued after that period the army would be given free rein to reply.
The weekly full cabinet meeting, normally held on Sunday mornings, was put off until the afternoon as the members of the security cabinet had been up all night, the radio said. ― (AFP, Tel Aviv)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
