Israeli and Palestinian security officials held talks on ways to calm the situation, but Palestinian officials said on Thursday the meeting had ended in failure. Palestinian officials emerged from the meeting and accused Israel of changing its offer.
"The Israeli-Palestinian meeting has failed to reach any results as the Israelis changed the proposal of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Bethlehem," Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's adviser Nabil Abu Rudeinah told Reuters. "Israel went back on its position of Monday under which the security plan would also be applied to Bethlehem after Gaza, saying it would only be applied to Gaza, and adding many new conditions," he added.
Under the proposal, Israel would redeploy its troops and ease conditions in the Gaza Strip before pulling its forces out of West Bank cities once violence ebbed and the Palestinian security forces took control and reined in armed groups.
Arafat's security adviser Mohammad Dahlan said the Israelis had gone back on their word at the talks. "The meeting was a failure because the Israelis went back on their word in the meeting," Dahlan said. What (Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer) said was changed at the meeting."
The talks had been seen as a trial gesture to restore security cooperation.
Israel’s Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh told Army Radio that "to talk of crisis is exaggerated. We are starting from positions so far apart that it's hardly to be expected that we will reach agreement in a first meeting." He said Thursday the Palestinians were also demanding an Israeli exit from Ramallah, not just Bethlehem. "From what (we know) is being cooked up in that city, there is no justification for it to be included (in the plan)," he commented.
Israel is expecting the process to take place in three stages, starting with agreement between the PA and Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups to reduce attacks. Israel is not expecting the PA to start with arrests but does expect house arrests and close guard on known activists, Israeli sources told Haaretz.
On the ground, Israeli troops and tanks moved into a village in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday for the second time in two days, wounding three youths during a clash with Palestinian stone throwers.
Israeli soldiers fired at hundreds of stone throwers in Beit Lahiya village, injuring at least three people. One boy was hit in the head while riding a bicycle nearby. Medical officials said he was in critical condition.
At least 30 tanks entered Beit Lahiya before dawn and imposed a curfew, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, Israeli security forces lowered Thursday morning the high alert in the Arava region following warnings that armed men had crossed the border from Jordan into Israel. The Israeli army has not found evidence of an infiltration.
The alert was declared Wedneday night, after Israeli soldiers detected an armed man who exited a car containing four other passangers on the Jordanian side of the border. The man was arrested by Jordanian soldiers, who carried out their own search for the vehicle, and the four other passengers escaped.
The road from Arava desert, near the Jordanian border, to the Red Sea resort town of Eilat was closed, but reopened Thursday morning. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
