Israel, Palestinians to Resume Delayed Talks

20/07/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: Meeting Not Yet Confirmed, Ereqat||Israeli Officials Meet Condoleeza Rice in Washington Next Week||Israel & the Palestinians Discuss Ceasefire Plan Through Third Parties||Occupation Army Demolishes Workshop in Gaza|| STORY: Israeli and Palestinian officials were expected to hold talks on Saturday evening that Israel postponed after two deadly Resistance attacks earlier in the week, an Israeli political source said. (Read photo caption)

The source said Israel's team, headed by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and minister Dani Naveh, would meet a Palestinian delegation led by negotiator Saeb Erekat to discuss ways to ease security and economic conditions for Palestinians.

Erekat said however the meeting had not yet been confirmed.

Israel postponed the talks on Wednesday after a bus ambush near a Jewish settlement in which eight people died. Later in the day, two Resistance bombers killed three people in a Tel Aviv .

Israel on Friday set terms for the possible deportation of relatives of Palestinian militants who provided a "supportive environment" for Resistance bombings.

The United Nations, the United States, Palestinians and human rights groups have criticized the plan as collective punishment that violates international laws and will not solve Israel's security problem.

The planned meeting is to focus on easing hardships on Palestinians from Israeli army blockades, reoccupation of Palestinian-ruled cities and curfews following back-to-back Resistance bombings that killed 26 people in Jerusalem last month.

The United States and Israel, insisting Palestinian President Yasser Arafat act against armed Resistance and conduct reforms, will discuss the issues next week when Israeli officials meet U.S. National Security adviser Condoleeza Rice in Washington, an Israeli government source said.

ISRAELI PALESTINIAN TALKS DOGGED BY SETBACKS

Saturday's meeting between Israeli and Palestinian officials is the latest rapprochement effort in 21 months of violence which killed at least 1,447 Palestinians and 559 Israelis.

Peres held Israel's first high-level talks for four months with the Palestinians earlier in July, agreeing on a series of meetings since plagued by attacks and cancellations.

Israel called off a meeting last Saturday due to what it called "technical reasons," and later postponed negotiations rescheduled for Wednesday because of the bus ambush.

ISRAEL & THE PALESTINIANS DISCUSS CEASEFIRE PLANTHROUGH THIRD PARTIES

Israel and the Palestinians, working through third parties, are discussing a cease-fire and an Israeli pullout from Palestinian areas as a way to end nearly 22 months of violence, Palestinian and Israeli officials said Friday.

The Jordanian and Saudi foreign ministers both spoke of the cease-fire discussions in comments to reporters after meeting with President Bush in Washington.

The cease-fire proposals have been discussed recently at meetings between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the European Union representative Miguel Moratinos, between Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and in the meetings between Bush and the Arab ministers in Washington, Palestinian sources said Friday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the first stage of the plan would be a halt to Palestinian suicide bombing attacks inside Israel.

This would be followed by an Israeli army withdrawal from Palestinian territory in the Gaza Strip and from territory in and around one West Bank city. Israel is suggesting Nablus while the Palestinians are holding out for Ramallah, the Palestinian officials said.

For a period of 15 days, the Israelis would see whether the Palestinians were capable of preventing attacks on Israelis from the areas which had been evacuated. If the experiment worked, it would be applied gradually to the other cities of the West Bank, the officials said.

OCCUPATION ARMY RAZES WORKSHOP IN GAZA

Occupation soldiers meanwhile used tanks and bulldozers today to destroy a metal workshop in a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.

A house was also damaged in the process in the camp in Rafiah. A shootout between the occupation soldiers and Palestinians ensued, but there were no reported casualties.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Palestinian boy walks through the rubble of a workshop after it was demolished by Israeli tanks early July 20, 2002 at Rafah refugee camp in the Southern Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Suhaib Sal