Elections for a new Palestinian president and legislature will be held next year between January 10 and 20, senior official Saeb Erakat said.
Erakat, chief Palestinian negotiator and a minister in the PA cabinet, told a news conference in the West Bank town of Jericho that local elections would be held in March.
According to AFP, he also said that the Palestinian Authority was working on a series of reforms in the judiciary and security services that would be ready in the coming months.
"Many of you may think, `Are we submitting this or saying this in response to President Bush's speech?' We are saying this in response to Palestinian needs. We're saying this because we have been working on this reform for months," Erekat said.
oN THE GROUND, at least seven Palestinians were arrested on Wednesday — five in Dura, a village near Hebron, and two others in Hebron and Tubas, in the Jenin area, the Israeli army said.
In Nablus, Palestinians detonated explosive devices aimed at Israeli troops and fired four mortar shells at a Jewish settlement in Gaza Strip, Israel's army said Wednesday. No injuries were reported.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer has pledged to evacuate 20 “unauthorized” settlement outposts in the West Bank, vowing to expel the settlers by force if they resist orders to leave voluntarily.
"I have determined that that there are 20 outposts that in my order of priorities, are at the greatest urgency for removal," Ben-Eliezer told Israel Channel One Television late on Tuesday. "I will take down these outposts."
Asked about the possibility that settlers would resist orders to evacuate the sites, the defense minister added that "There are always two possibilities - either they will leave voluntarily, as soon as they realize that the decision is a determined one, or the Israeli army will remove them." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
