Israeli forces are due Saturday to start the first phase of their withdrawal from the West Bank town of Bethlehem and Beit Jala after reaching an agreement with Palestinian officials on a ceasefire during a joint security meeting Friday.
The two sides met Friday for four hours near Tel Aviv in their first contact since the October 17 assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister. The meeting was held under the aegis of the United States by the Israeli-Palestinian security committee, which is due to meet again on Sunday, according to AFP.
It was convened only hours after three armed Palestinians of the Hamas movement were killed by Israeli troops as they tried to sneak into a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
The resistance fighters were disguised in Israeli army uniforms. Hamas said in a statement that the Israeli army had to engage in a 30-minute battle involving helicopter gunships to kill the three men.
Hamas said Israelis were also killed, but there was no independent confirmation.
ISRAEL PLANS PULLOUT FOLLOWING INT'L CONDEMNATION>
"We have agreed that Israel will withdraw its forces from the Bethlehem-Beit Jala area on Saturday and that the committee will meet again Sunday to decide on Israeli withdrawals from other reoccupied areas," a high-ranking Palestinian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
An Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman said the deal was reached after the Palestinians agreed to implement a ceasefire in the area after the withdrawal.
The deal was also reached after the UN Security Council called on Israel to withdraw in a non-binding statement to the press.
A meeting between senior Israeli and Palestinian security officers to discuss the terms of the withdrawal on the ground was scheduled for Saturday morning, the spokesman said.
Some 50 Palestinians, including around 20 in the Bethlehem area, have been killed by Israeli forces since the violent re-occupation of six autonomous West Bank towns which followed the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for the assassination, in retaliation for the killingof its own leader earlier this year.
Earlier, the Israeli security cabinet approved under intense international pressure a phased withdrawal - a move hailed by US Secretary of State Colin Powell - but said it would only proceed if the Palestinians meet Israeli security demands.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin said Friday Israel still wanted the handover of militants suspected in Zeevi's killing and a crackdown by the Palestinian Authority on hardline groups.
But Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said the Israelis' demand for the extradition of Zeevi's killers was against existing legal agreements between the two sides.
And Mohammad Dahlan, Gaza’s head of Preventive Security, told reporters on Wednesday that Israel had already captured two of the suspects in the killing.
The Palestinian Authority responded to Zeevi's assassination by making some arrests and outlawing the armed wing of the PFLP, but has refused to give up anyone to the Israelis, who claimed they had made some significant arrests in Beit Reema, where they carried out what the Palestinians termed a massacre. But it still wants PFLP chief Ahmad Sadat.
But the armed wings of five Palestinian resistance groups, including Arafat's Fateh, said in a statement Friday they intended to continue the struggle against Israel.
Marwan Barghouthi, Fateh secretary in the West Bank and a de facto leader of the Intifada, told Al Jazeera satellite channel that the uprising would not stop until the 34-year Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands came to an end.
RE-OCCUPATION DRAWS UN SECURITY COUNCIL FIRE
The UN Security Council, including Israel's main ally the United States, called Thursday for an immediate pull-out, though it stopped short of making the demand legally binding.
The Security Council also said it strongly endorsed a four-point statement issued by its Middle East representative Terje Roed-Larsen and envoys from the United States, the European Union and Russia.
Apart from a withdrawal, they called on Israel to "halt extra-judicial killings, ensure greater restraint by the [Israeli army], and fully respect the ceasefire" agreed last month with the Palestinians.
The statement also urged Arafat to "make a concerted effort to ensure full and strict compliance with the Palestinian Authority's ceasefire orders, including through arresting those who defy his orders and taking further steps against ‘terrorist’ organizations."
Russia meanwhile warned: "The situation is evolving towards a total Israeli-Palestinian confrontation. Such a development is in essence becoming a threat for international security."
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday that President George W. Bush had demanded Arafat arrest those responsible for Zeevi's assassination.
Washington wants the region calm so it can keep Arab backing for its strikes on Afghanistan and the man it holds responsible for the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, Osama bin Laden.
But the US administration toned down a demand for Israeli withdrawal, adding to an initially strong-worded statement the phrase “as soon as possible.”
CONFLICT ROLLS ON
The funeral of the three Hamas fighters killed Friday took place in the Jabaliya refugee camp, and was attended by thousands, as masked militants stood on the roofs of cars and fired guns.
Following the procession, eight stone-throwing Palestinians were wounded by Israeli soldiers.
Other reports put the number of those wounded Friday at 21.
Separately, Israeli troops shot dead an Israeli Bedouin Arab who allegedly tried to force his way into the Gaza Strip at the wheel of his tractor for reasons that were not immediately clear, an army statement said.
The army claimed he was trying to make a hole in the fence separating Israel from the Palestinian lands, and that a Palestinian was waiting on the other side of the fence, but fled the scene when the army patrol opened fire.
A Palestinian shot three weeks ago also died of his wounds Friday, bringing the toll for the 13-month-old Intifada to 930, including 730 Palestinians and 178 Israelis, according to AFP’s tally – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
