Israeli Defense Minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer cautioned on Sunday that Israel would not withdraw from more Palestinian areas as laid out in a new agreement unless Palestinian security forces work harder to stop violence against Israelis.
Another Israeli Cabinet minister, Danny Naveh, went even further, saying the security agreement reached last week — entailing Israeli withdrawals in exchange for Palestinian assurances against terror — is "frozen." "They haven't done anything serious ... concerning terror and violence," Naveh told Israel Radio.
Ben-Eliezer, however, denied the agreement was frozen. But he said that Israel could not go forward in its implementation since there had been so many indications that Palestinian activists were still planning attacks against Israeli targets.
"In accordance with agreements, the defense minister expects an improved security situation in the Gaza Strip, and the continuation of Israeli steps, including the redeployment of forces in Hebron, will be considered according to Palestinian efforts to reduce terror and violence in the Gaza Strip and Bethlehem," Ben-Eliezer's office said in a statement.
Security meetings regarding implementation of the agreement will continue this week, the release said.
Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon on Sunday termed Palestinian "terror" the greatest threat to Israel's security, and warned that it was spreading like a cancer.
Speaking at the annual convention of rabbis in Jerusalem, Israel Radio reported that Ya'alon said Israel needed to win the conflict with the Palestinians in order to make them understand that no diplomatic achievements could be achived through the use of "terror."
On his part, Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said the Israelis were stalling for no reason. "What I can describe the situation to be is non-movement as if the consistent position of the Israeli government is to keep the status quo," Erekat said.
Raids, arrests
Israeli troops raided the Palestinian town of Salfit in the West Bank early on Sunday. An army spokesman said that at least five Palestinians had been arrested in the operation north of Ramallah which commenced before dawn and continued into the early morning. An additional five arrests were made elsewhere in the West Bank overnight.
Israeli troops arrested a suicide bomber and two accomplices in the village of Marka south of Jenin, Israel Radio quoted Palestinian sources as saying Sunday.
The army also detained a Palestinian man in Hebron area and a Hamas member in a village south of Nablus, whom it said was connected to the East Jerusalem-based Hamas cell captured last week and which carried out eight attacks this year, including the bombing at the Hebrew University.
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
Israeli troops shot dead early Sunday a Palestinian fighter in a gunbattle. Mohammad Hatem Aott, 23, was the Jenin leader of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. He was killed in a clash with Israeli troops patrolling in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, local witnesses said.
Israeli military sources confirmed the death and said a second Palestinian gunman was wounded.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades praised their leader for "taking part in operations which killed several Israeli soldiers and settlers", vowing to avenge his death with "martyr operations."
Elsewhere, Palestinian gunmen shot and killed a Palestinian woman suspected of collaborating with Israel Saturday, then dumped her bullet-riddled body on a street in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, sources said.
A member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said its seized a 35-year old woman from her house on Friday and took her to a deserted building where they videotaped her confessing that she had spied for Israel.
On Saturday, she was executed as a lesson to others who would consider collaborating with Israel. She had recruited her 18-year-old son, Baker Khouli, to assist her.
Baker informed his mother of the whereabouts of Ziad Daas, a local leader, who was killed by Israeli forces on August 7, the source said, according to AP. The son said Sunday that Palestinian gunmen tortured him until he invented a story about his mother's involvement in Daas's death.
The son was seized on Thursday and is still being held, the source said. Meanwhile, it is reported that at least 200 Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel are being held in Palestinian Authority prisons, according to informed Palestinian sources.
The PA's security forces in the Gaza Strip arrested the majority of the informers over the past two years, the sources told The Jerusalem Post. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
