Israeli, Palestinian Officials Meet, One Palestinian Shot Dead in Gaza

15/06/2003| IslamWeb

Israel will pull its troops out of some areas of the Gaza Strip and hand over security to Palestinian officials as part of an effort to revive peace moves badly damaged by a week of bloody violence, an Israeli official said Sunday. Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli defense ministry official, presented Israel's withdrawal plan to Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan during a meeting late Saturday, an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity. It was the first such meeting since a June 4 summit in Jordan, where President Bush helped launch the "road map" peace plan, which calls for an end to 32 months of violence and the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. "It was positive, and there was a possibility of progress," Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said of the meeting. But Israeli security source said, Israeli forces would "not move a centimeter" unless Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan presented a plan for cracking down on radical factions -- a step he and reformist Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas have been reluctant to take. A high-level delegation of Egyptian security officials planned to arrive in Gaza on Sunday to meet with Hamas officials to discuss such an agreement. Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas was expected to attend the talks. In the first phase of the plan, Palestinians are to stop attacks against Israelis and disarm Palestinian fighters, and Israel is only to dismantle some settlement in the West Bank. ** One Palestinian Shot Dead in Gaza*** Meanwhile at least one Palestinian was shot dead in a gun battle in the Gaza early on Sunday in fresh clashes after talks were held to try to salvage a peace plan. Top Palestinian and Israeli security officials met late on Saturday to discuss a possible Israeli troop pullback from northern Gaza in exchange for a Palestinian crackdown on Intifadha (uprising). Just hours after Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan met Israeli Major General Amos Gilad, an Israeli force killed a member of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in a shootout in northern Gaza, Palestinian medics and the army said. Also four other Palestinians were injured. George Bush sent John Wolf to the region to meet with Palestinian and Israeli leaders in coming days in an attempt to keep the plan alive. Wolf's job was likely to be difficult, as the bloodshed showed little sign of abating after a week in which more than 50 people were killed. After three days in which Israel killed six 22 Palestinian civilians, the Palestinian authorities said they were ready to assume security control if Israel stopped the strikes. Hamas, the main group behind a campaign of bomb attacks against Israeli Zionists, said it would flatly reject any deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. "We will not accept a cease-fire," said the Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Palestinians carry the body of three-year-old toddler during her funeral at Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza June 13, 2003. An Israeli missile strike in the Gaza Strip Thursday killed seven people, including a senior Hamas member, his wife and three-year-old daughter, amid a surge in violence that has undermined U.S.-led peace efforts. (Photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters)