Foreign Worker Killed in West Bank

01/07/2003| IslamWeb

Palestinian attacker shot dead a foreign worker in the West Bank on Monday, shaking a fragile truce with Israel which their leaders announced under international pressure to shore up a U.S.-backed peace plan. Al-Aqsa group staged the ambush hours after Israeli forces left parts of the Gaza Strip, starting a disengagement process buoyed by the truce announcement by leading militant factions and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. The attack, which killed a Bulgarian national, underlined the fragility of the latest peace moves after 33 months of violence, including several failed cease-fires. But the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers are expected to meet on Tuesday and the United States, the main Middle East peace broker, said it was encouraged by the progress made. "There will be elements who will try to prevent peace," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in the United States, urging the Palestinian Authority to crack down on intifadha. A local leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated to Fatah, said his armed group was behind the attack near the West Bank city of Jenin. "We are not committed to this so-called truce and we will continue to fight the (Jewish) settlers and the Israeli military inside the occupied territories," the Brigades official said. But underlining a lack of central command, the Gaza branch of the Brigades said it backed the truce. **ABBAS, SHARON TO MEET*** Reformist Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas will meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday to discuss further mutual confidence-building steps in the "road map" plan for peace despite the violence, Abbas's spokesman said. Sharon's office declined immediate comment but a senior member of the government confirmed a meeting was planned. Monday's attack raised doubt about a follow-up deal for an Israeli withdrawal from Bethlehem in the south of the territory reported by Palestinian security minister Mohammad Dahlan. "The shooting underscores the problematic nature of the truce by Palestinians and the future of security arrangements in general, said Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Sharon. Bethlehem, revered by Christians as Jesus's birthplace, was among self-governing West Bank cities reoccupied by Israeli troops last year in response to bomb attacks in uprising for statehood launched in September 2000. The road map, drawn up by the United States, Russia, the European Union and United Nations and charting steps leading to a Palestinian state on Gaza and West Bank territory by 2005, requires Palestinian police to fill security gaps wherever Israel has withdrawn its forces by clamping down on Palestinian uprising. On Monday, Israeli forces withdrew from the territory's main highway, ending a blockade of the economic lifeline dating from the outbreak of the uprising. Gaza police hoisted a Palestinian flag over a makeshift outpost along the 45-km (25-mile) highway. Palestinians regained control over the entire road except for one army checkpoint outside Kfar Darom, a Jewish settlement. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Palestinian security forces in Salahud-deen street in Gaza