GAZA CITY, 11 October 2005 — A summit meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, their first since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza Strip, was put off again yesterday after the two sides were deadlocked over Israeli troop withdrawals in the West Bank and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

The failure of the two sides to cobble together a meeting, which had tentatively been set for today, further dampened the climate for peacemaking that the international community had hoped would improve after the pullout.

Occasional bursts of violence have also clouded prospects. On Sunday night, Israeli troops shot dead three Palestinians near the Gaza-Israel security border fence. Palestinian security officials said the three were unarmed. Another Palestinian official said they were laborers trying to enter Israel, and that their bags contained food and clothes.

Postponement of the Abbas-Sharon summit meeting was widely expected after senior Israeli and Palestinian negotiators failed to bridge differences in three separate sets of talks, including a round yesterday.

“There was not enough preparation for this summit ... to be held tomorrow,” Palestinian official Nabil Abu Rudainah said. “So it has been postponed until the end of the month, or the beginning of next month.”

In a joint statement, the two sides said they would continue meeting in committees to try to resolve the disputes.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Sharon aide Raanan Gissin said the handover of West Bank towns and the release of prisoners were the sticking points.

The Palestinians want Israel to honor its commitment to turn over four more West Bank towns to Palestinian control, and to release some of the more than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners it is holding.

Israel is prepared in principle to free some prisoners, but hasn’t presented the Palestinians with any specific proposals regarding the number of Palestinians it is willing to free, or whether it would release prisoners involved in attacks on Israelis, Palestinian Cabinet Minister Sufian Abu Zaydeh said before the meeting was postponed.

“The issue of the prisoners is one of the most important issues in terms of Palestinian public opinion,” Abu Zaydeh said. Abbas “would have a lot of difficulties meeting with Sharon without having convincing answers,” he said. Gissin said Israel was willing to consider handing over some prisoners involved in deadly attacks on Israel, but would not “release, wholesale, prisoners with blood on their hands.”

As for the handover of West Bank towns, the Defense Ministry said Sunday that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz objected to further transfers in conjunction with the meeting.

Israel agreed to the pullback as part of a February cease-fire. But the process stalled after two towns, Jericho and Tulkarm, were handed over, with Israel accusing the Palestinians of failing to take action against militants in those towns. Israel later retook Tulkarm after a bomber from the area attacked an Israeli city.

The postponement of the Abbas-Sharon meeting was the second in as many weeks. An Oct. 2 meeting was canceled after Palestinians bombarded southern Israel with rockets, and Israel retaliated with a military offensive.

Erekat said the two men would meet after Abbas returns from an Oct. 20 meeting in Washington with US President George W. Bush. The scuttling of the meeting showed that Israel’s Gaza pullout last month has failed to create the peace momentum the international community had hoped for. Even so, Erekat described the negotiations that ultimately failed to produce the meeting as “very positive.” Both sides “expressed our commitments to the implementation of the road map,” he said, referring to the US-backed peace plan that stalled more than two years ago.

Gissin dismissed the notion of fast-track peacemaking, and said the withdrawal “has proved that the only way that you can move toward peace is piecemeal, step by step.”

The two sides have made progress on other Palestinian demands in recent days, with a compromise possibly shaping up on reopening Gaza’s border with Egypt.

Israel closed the Rafah terminal — the main exit out of Gaza — before the withdrawal. The Palestinians say reopening the border is essential for Gaza’s ravaged economy.

— With input from agencies