GAZA, 20 June 2003 — Jewish settlers scuffled yesterday with soldiers as the Israeli Army for the first time tried to dismantled an inhabited settler outpost. Earlier, a Palestinian blew himself up in a grocery store in northern Israel, killing its owner.
Settler leaders planned to make Mitzpe Yitzhar a showcase of their opposition to the US-backed peace road map, which envisages the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. They were calling on settlers across the West Bank to flock to the site to block the eviction.
The Israeli government move came a day before US Secretary of State Colin Powell was due to arrive to prop up the peace process.
Soldiers tried at first to drag away some of the 200 protesters who gathered at the site, but the situation turned into a stalemate after the group sat down on a road to block army vehicles.
At least two youths clambered atop an armored personnel carrier and soldiers wrestled them back to the ground. Other settlers roamed the site on horseback.
The road map, affirmed at the Aqaba summit, says outposts built after March 2001 must go. Some settlers accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a longtime champion of settlement building, of betraying them.
The international community views all Israeli settlements on occupied land as illegal. Israel has planted 145 settlements with a total population of 200,000 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the attack in the farming community of Sdeh Trumot near the West Bank.
The larger resistance group Hamas said it was mulling over proposals for a cease-fire with Israel. Senior Hamas official Ismail Abu Shanab made his remarks a day after the group held what it called a “very positive” meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.
Shanab said Hamas had made no decision on calls for a cease-fire in the 32-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
“We will continue to discuss this issue and will take a decision as soon as possible, in the next few days,” he said.
Powell is to confer today with Abbas in the West Bank town of Jericho after the American’s meetings with the Israeli leadership, Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said.
Speaking in Dhaka, Powell held out a glimmer of hope for the battered peace plan, saying he saw signs of progress between Israelis and Palestinians on a security agreement for northern Gaza.
Israeli and Palestinian security officials held more talks yesterday on the eventual Palestinian control of areas in the Gaza Strip to be evacuated by Israeli troops, but reached no agreement, a Palestinian minister said.
Governmental Affairs Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, speaking after talks in Ramallah with top US monitor John Wolf, said the meeting took place at the Erez crossing from Israel into the Gaza Strip. It was attended by US officials.
