TEL AVIV, 19 August — Israel and the Palestinians held their highest level security talks in two weeks last night, with discussions focusing on a possible Israeli withdrawal from re-occupied lands.
The Defense Ministry said in a statement late last night that the implementation of the "Gaza First" security plan, which involves a phased Israeli withdrawal from reoccupied Palestinian areas, is to start from today in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
"Both sides agreed to start implementing the initiative from today (Monday) in the cities of Gaza and Bethlehem where the Palestinians will take responsibility for the security situation," the statement said.
Political sources, quoted by Israel Army radio, described the talks as "having an interesting atmosphere".
Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer and Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razaq Al-Yahya met at a Tel Aviv hotel for talks on the so-called "Gaza First" plan for a phased Israeli pullback from re-occupied areas where calm has prevailed and the Palestinian security forces can guarantee a clampdown on anti-Israeli attacks.
Among the Israeli delegation were the army chiefs of the south and central commands, a senior military official representing the army in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and representatives of the Shabak, Israel’s internal security service.
The Palestinian team included Ismail Jaber, head of the Palestinian security services in the West Bank and the former Palestinian security official Mohammed Dahlan, Palestinian officials said.
Ben Eliezer first presented the plan to Yahya in Jerusalem on Aug. 5. But amid Palestinian fears that Israel could try to chalk up credit for a Gaza pullback while maintaining its stranglehold on the re-occupied West Bank, Israeli officials said the withdrawals could also apply to Bethlehem and even Hebron.
Under the scheme, Palestinian security forces would take control of the areas vacated by the withdrawing Israeli forces, who would move back to positions held before the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, started in September 2000.
The Palestinian Cabinet gave preliminary approval on Aug. 7 to the Gaza First plan to ease Israel’s military clampdown.
But Palestinian and Israeli officials who later met to discuss the proposal failed to reach any agreement amid Palestinian demands for Israeli troop withdrawals from West Bank cities reoccupied in June after a spate of suicide bombings.
"The main idea is to achieve a cease-fire and for tensions and all the violence to decrease," Ben-Eliezer said about his proposal. "This will allow, first of all, to...help (the Palestinians) from a humanitarian aspect by expanding the inventory of civilian aid and enabling them to reach the decisive stage of reform and reorganization so we can enter into a dialogue down the line."
In another development, pressing ahead with operations against Palestinians, the Israeli Army detained 16 suspects in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Qalqilya, a military spokesman said.
Three Palestinians were injured yesterday in the southern Gaza Strip when Israeli tanks based in a Jewish settlement opened fire on the Khan Younis refugee camp, while Israeli forces made two minor incursions elsewhere in the territory.
The three, including a 16-year-old girl, were hit by shrapnel when tanks in the Gush Katif settlement opened fire, Palestinian security sources said.
The edge of the refugee camp is only a few hundred meters from the coastal settlement zone, and frequent exchanges of fire occur there.
Israeli forces also made two incursions into Palestinian autonomous zones, arrested a Palestinian Authority worker in Deir El-Balah in the central Strip and eight members of the same family in Rafah on the Egyptian border, Palestinians officials said.
The Israeli Army destroyed two Palestinian homes being built near a road reserved for Jewish settlers on the outskirts of a village in the northern West Bank, an army spokesman said yesterday.
Earlier this month, dozens of settlers briefly took over two Palestinian houses in the same village after a young couple from the nearby settlement of Eli, just south of Nablus, were shot dead in a roadside ambush.
