Israel began withdrawing Monday night from Bethlehem, ending its patrols in this city as part of an agreement to hand it over to Palestinian security control, Israel Radio said. Residents said that the Israeli-imposed curfew was still in effect in the town, though Israel Radio and Israel Army radio both reported that Israeli forces were no longer on patrol there.
However, the Israeli forces are surrounding the city and manning roadblocks in the area.
About 100 armed Palestinian policemen arrived in Bethlehem.
The police arrived in a convoy of about a dozen jeeps from nearby Jericho. They deployed around the headquarters of Bethlehem's governor, where officials from various Palestinian security services, including West Bank security chief Haj Ismail, were meeting to discuss the withdrawal plan, the sources said.
After the Bethlehem handover, Israel is to pull its forces back from forward positions in the Gaza Strip, lifting roadblocks and easing restrictions there, handing security duties over to Palestinian police.
On Sunday nighy, Israeli and Palestinian security officials reached agreement on a plan for Israeli troops to withdraw from Bethlehem and from parts of the Gaza Strip. The deal was the first concrete sign of progress between the two sides in months.
The breakthrough came during talks between Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer and Palestinian interior minister Abdel Razaq al-Yahya at a Tel Aviv hotel.
Top Palestinian security officials met early Monday with Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Yasser Arafat to brief him on the deal. A senior aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said the plan would go into effect within 48 hours.
Ben Eliezer described implementation of the Gaza First plan as a confidence-building step that could open the way for future political and security talks.
"The steps are essential as a starting point for the future political and security process," he said in the statement. "Therefore, we have to start the implementation immediately, step-by-step. This is a realistic process ... a real opportunity for the Palestinians to stop the violence and terror and to start on a new path," he added.
Further contacts between Israeli and Palestinian officials active in the security field would take place in the coming days, the Israeli defense ministry said. Under the security plan, Israeli forces will move back to positions held before the intifada, started in September 2000.
In return for the pullout, Israel demands Palestinian security forces to rein in armed groups, and on the top of them Hamas.
Islamic groups
For its part, Hamas immediately rejected the plan and vowed to keep fighting Israeli occupation. "Hamas and the Palestinian people reject any agreement which aims at destroying our resistance and ending the intifada, which is what this agreement is aimed at," Gaza-based Hamas spokesman Ismail Haniya told AFP.
"This will only give security and quiet to the Zionists and the occupation, not to our people," Haniya said. "We are not able to accept partial quiet in Gaza when all the cities, towns and refugee camps in the West Bank are under Israeli aggression and siege," Haniya added.
Asked whether he feared the Gaza First plan would provoke a crackdown on Hamas activists by Palestinian security forces, Haniya answered only that Hamas would never allow Palestinian national unity to be broken. "We will not allow (this agreement to cause) internal clashes because we have to have Palestinian national unity," he said.
Hania also slammed the agreement as a cynical "first step" to secure some kind of calm before an expected US attack on Iraq. "I am sure that the Israeli Zionists will not respect any agreement but this agreement is the first step before a strike on Iraq," he said.
Meanwhile, Islamic Jihad has vowed to step up attacks on Israeli targets to thwart the deal. "The Palestinian people's answer will be to escalate the resistance to foil (Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin) Ben Eliezer's plan," said Khalid El-Batsh, a Gaza Strip leader for the Islamic Jihad.
"We in Islamic Jihad reject this agreement because it will consecrate the Israeli occupation of our land," he told AFP. "This accord aims to destroy the intifada," he said.
Batsh said the accord would only serve to deepen division between Palestinian factions.
Violence continues
A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by Israeli tank fire in the village of Burkin near the West Bank city of Jenin.
Also Monday, Israeli troops and Palestinians exchanged gunfire in Nablus. Witnesses said several Palestinians were wounded — one seriously — in shooting between Palestinians and soldiers in the main market. Soon after, the army used explosives to destroy a house in the area. The army said it had discovered a bomb lab in the market.
In Gaza Strip, witnesses and local security sources said Israeli soldiers raided and searched houses and used a bulldozer to raze crops and an irrigation network in an area west of Khan Younis. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
