Palestinian, Israeli slain as "quartet" backs EU plan for peace

18/09/2002| IslamWeb

A Palestinian activist was killed in the West Bank and an Israeli found dead near Jerusalem, a day after the international diplomatic "quartet" on the Middle East adopted an EU roadmap to create a Palestinian state by 2005. The Palestinian was identified as Tarek Bsharat, 23, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a violent offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.

He was killed in an Israeli raid near Jenin in the northern West Bank by troops who also wounded and captured Ammad Bani Owdeh, 22, a member of the same group, Palestinians security officials said.

Both men also belonged to Force 17, Arafat's presidential guard, officials said.

The mayor of the nearby town of Tulkarem, Bashar Bani Owedeh, told AFP the two men were in a car when the soldiers attacked and then blew up their vehicle.

Israeli police also discovered the charred corpse of an Israeli man who had been shot in the head and left on a rubbish dump on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem, Israeli public radio reported.

The man was identified as David Buhbut, 67, from the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank between Jerusalem and Jericho. He had been reported missing the day before.

The dump where he was found is near the district of Azariyeh in occupied east Jerusalem, not far from the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim, the largest in the West Bank.

Police suspect the killing to be related to the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, which has claimed around 2,500 lives, most of them Palestinian, since it erupted on September 29, 2000.

The killings came as violence has focused more and more on the occupied Palestinian territories, leaving Israel largely untouched since August 4, although police have intercepted bombers trying to enter the Jewish state to attack.

Fatah has been mulling declaring an end to attacks on civilians inside Israel, and preventing other hardline groups from doing so, for the second anniversary of the Palestinian uprising, which has left almost the entire West Bank under Israeli reoccupation.

In an attempt to capitalise on the lull in violence, top diplomats from the so-called Middle East quartet held intensive talks on the issue on Tuesday in New York.

Top diplomats from the quartet -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- agreed to the outline of a EU plan to defuse the crisis and create a Palestinian state.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and current EU president, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller met with various officials from the region for consultations before adopting the plan.

"The quartet is working closely with the parties and consulting key regional actors on a concrete, three-phase implementation roadmap that could achieve a final settlement within three years," the group said.

The first phase of the three-stage proposal calls for sweeping Palestinian security reforms and an Israeli withdrawal to positions held before the start of the intifada.

It also calls for an Israeli-Palestinian security agreement to be concluded ahead of Palestinian elections in January. As part of the first phase, the quartet called for a ministerial-level meeting of aid officials to be held in November to assess the humanitarian conditions of the Palestinians.

Palestinians expressed disappointment with the roadmap, however, with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, in Ramallah, saying the outline was just a "general statement."

"It doesn't resolve anything," Erakat said, noting the quartet's failure to reach anything beyond agreeing on the general timing of interim steps.

"We were hoping the quartet would stop the Israeli aggression, the siege and closure and the Israeli terrorism against our people in order to move on with the negotiations."

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian boys search the rubble for retrievable items in Khan