Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced steps Wednesday to ease an internationally condemned economic blockade on the Palestinian territories as fresh violence flared, leaving two Palestinians dead and more than 10 injured, said reports.
Speaking at the first meeting of his security cabinet, Sharon said "measures will be taken to make life easier on the civilian population," Haaretz newspaper quoted the hard-liner as saying.
Sharon said he would "permit the entry of raw materials and merchandise into territories under Palestinian control, to authorize fishing and the construction of an electric station in Gaza, and the free movement of Palestinians between their cities," according to the paper.
"The internal blockade between Palestinian cities will be lifted as soon as it is possible to do so," said Sharon in a statement following the three-and-a-half-hour meeting.
“For now, the prohibition on Palestinians entering Israel will remain in force,” he said.
However, the cabinet decided, it will consider additional measures aimed at easing life for the Palestinian population at future meetings, again subject to security considerations, Haaretz said.
At the same time, however, the government will wage a "focused, uncompromising and consistent war over time against violence and terror - the perpetrators, the accomplices and the instigators," Sharon said.
It will also work to "protect the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."
Sharon's defense minister, Binyamin Ben Eliezer, was quoted as telling the Knesset that the closure will soon be lifted from all Palestinian towns in the West Bank.
The blockade, in place since the start of Israeli-Palestinian clashes five months ago, has been condemned internationally by many countries including Israel's top ally, the United States.
Two Palestinians were killed Wednesday and a pregnant woman died after the Israeli army did not allow her to go to hospital and blocked her at a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Jenin.
In the West Bank, medical sources said 10 Palestinians were injured by Israeli rubber bullets as several hundred protested on a road between Ramallah and Bir Zeit, which Palestinians began rebuilding after it was dug up several days ago by Israelis. Another two were injured in clashes in the town of al-Khader near Bethlehem, said AFP.
"Closure does not frighten us," shouted the protestors. "We will continue the uprising until we have our freedom."
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council met Wednesday, in an unexpected move, for separate private talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and the Palestinian observer to the United Nations, Nasser Al-Kidwa.
AFP said that members of the Security Council told Peres that almost all of them favored sending UN observers to the Palestinian territories.
But Peres caustically rejected the notion, and Kidwa, acknowledged that it would be hard to get it adopted without the support of the United States.
The council is scheduled to hold a formal debate on the Middle East on Thursday, and Al-Kidwa told reporters he hoped it would approve a resolution for "a UN presence" in the Palestinian territories.
The debate is due to start around 11:00 am (1600 GMT). The council president, Volodymyr Yel'chenko, Ukrainian ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters that "there is no unanimity in the Security Council" on the proposed force.
But, he said, "almost all members delivered a very strong message to (Peres) that they are in favor of it."
He said there were "many details to be discussed" and added "there is a role for the secretary general (Kofi Annan) to play, consulting the parties."
Yel'chenko said that Peres's schedule would not permit him to take part in Thursday's debate, AFP added.
Council members met with Peres behind closed doors for two hours and then had a private meeting with Al-Kidwa for about an hour and a half.
Emerging from his meeting, Peres said: "I recommend to the Security Council not to be one-sided in a process that needs the two sides."
He said Israel was ready to resume negotiations immediately with the Palestinians, but said:
"You cannot shoot and negotiate at the same time. Shooting and talking are like fire and water. They do not go together."
Al-Kidwa, for his part, said "the Israeli campaign of oppression" had not stopped in spite of a council resolution, adopted on October 7, which condemned "the excessive use of force" against Palestinian civilians – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
