Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rejected a proposal put forward by Egypt and Jordan aimed at halting the deadly tide of Israeli-Palestinian violence and resuming peace talks, reported Haaretz newspaper, quoting Israeli Radio on Sunday.
The radio, quoting senior sources in Sharon's office, said the Palestinians had transmitted to Israel the proposal, which focuses on stopping violence, resuming security cooperation, implementing a third Israeli troop withdrawal from the West Bank and renewing talks for a final status agreement.
But Sharon has rejected the plan, viewing it as an "attempt to drag Israel into negotiations under fire," the radio said.
It said that senior Israel officials insist that negotiations will not be resumed until quiet is restored.
Israel will only agree to negotiate an interim agreement and talks on a final agreement are not under consideration, the radio quoted the senior officials as saying.
Palestinian President agreed on Saturday to the proposal, saying that “Palestinians are ready to accept an Egyptian-Jordanian mediation to implement October's Sharm el-Shiekh agreement and immediately return to negotiations,” reported Haaretz newspaper.
Arafat's remarks, said the paper, came during a meeting in Ramallah with MKs Mohammed Barakeh, Tamar Goznsky and Issam Makhoul of the ultra-leftwing Hadash party.
Within the same context, Haaretz quoted Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres as calling on the Palestinian Authority to resume talks with Israel immediately on "ending the terrorism and violence" and later renewing the peace talks with no prior conditions.
"The Palestinians said that they will only conduct final status negotiations, and we want to talk about interim agreements. It will be a mistake not to hold negotiations," Peres was quoted as telling several ambassadors in Jerusalem on Friday.
"After the terrorism ceases we should begin negotiations," the paper quoted him as saying.
"We cannot fight fire with fire, and there is a need for water as well," Peres said.
Peres said that Arafat was a partner and not a target.
"Arafat erred when he rejected Clinton's offer and we expect that he say loud and clear that he will uphold his letter to [late prime minister] Yitzhak Rabin dated September 1993, in which he obligated himself to solve the dispute in a peaceful manner, taking steps against terrorism.
"Some of the shooting is carried out by members of Force 17 and Arafat needs to discipline Force 17 and the Tanzim. We expect a 100 percent effort."
"We have repeatedly announced that this government does not want to continue what is referred to as the Israeli occupation," Peres said.
In the Palestinian lands, an eleven-year-old boy died of injuries he sustained during clashes with the Israeli army in Ramallah, said Haaretz.
It added that “elite Israeli soldiers arrested six Palestinians, among them the Force 17 regional commander and four other members of Arafat's presidential guard, Israel Radio reported.
Israel holds Force 17 members responsible for a series of ambush killings and other attacks on Israelis during the Al Aqsa Intifada.
On Saturday, reports said that two Palestinian girls, under the age of ten, were killed in the Gaza Strip when the Israeli troops opened fire randomly on protestors.
Wala’ Abu Jazar and Samar Abu Obeid were both killed Rafah city in the Gaza Strip, said reports.
In another development, AFP said that Palestinian security forces trained their defenses against potential Israeli army incursions on Saturday.
A high-ranking security official told AFP in the Gaza Strip that Palestinian security had carried out maneuvers on "highways and sensitive regions" in preparation for a threatened Israeli "infiltration" or "assault."
Israeli officials, hoping to put down the six-month-old Palestinian Intifada, have made veiled threats of sending the army into areas put under Palestinian Authority control by the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
The maneuvers followed a massive bombardment of the West Bank town of Hebron by Israeli tanks and machine-gun fire overnight, which residents described as the worst raid since the Intifada began, leaving 28 people wounded, according to the agency.
A gunfight was also reported for the first time in a month at Gilo, a Jewish settlement that Israel considers inside Jerusalem's municipal borders, said Haaretz.
Meanwhile, more than 40,000 people gathered in Nablus Saturday as the bodies of five Palestinians shot dead there Friday in clashes with the Israeli army were taken from the morgue to the grave, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.
In the village of Beitunia near Ramallah, around 1,500 people turned out to bury 21-year-old Mohammed el-Wawawi, also killed by Israeli gunfire on Friday.
Another firefight, said Haaretz, took place after Palestinian gunmen shot at an Israeli army camp east of Beit Sahur near the West Bank town of Bethlehem. No one was injured, added the paper.
In Gaza City, members of the Islamic Jihad movement brought out masked gunmen at a rally in which they pledged to carry out more bombings inside Israel, said Haaretz.
"We'll penetrate Israeli security and carry out more operations against Israeli targets," one unidentified masked militant told the crowd of 2,000 - Albawaba.com
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