Israel accepts Palestinian police plan
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-21 10:59

Israeli officials accepted a Palestinian plan to deploy hundreds of police officers along the Gaza-Israel frontier starting Friday, in the first act of security cooperation with Israel under Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Palestinian generals presented the plan during a meeting with their Israeli counterparts late Wednesday, convened in a last-ditch effort to avert an Israeli military offensive in Gaza.

The meeting was a sign of success by Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in defusing their first crisis — though the situation remains highly volatile and renewed rocket fire by Palestinian militants could trigger major violence. Only last week, Sharon announced he was boycotting the Palestinian leadership to protest what Israel said was Abbas' lack of determination to rein in militants.

Palestinians carry the body of 14-year-old Salah Ikhab during his funeral in Tubas, south of the West Bank town of Jenin. The boy was shot by Israeli soldiers while playing with a toy gun which he had been given as a present, witnesses said. [AFP]

Abbas has been holding talks with leaders of militant groups in Gaza since Tuesday, and his aides said he was edging closer to a truce deal with them. The militants say they are ready to halt attacks, provided Israel stops military operations — a promise Israel has refused to make.

In the security meeting late Wednesday, Palestinian generals presented a detailed plan for stopping rocket fire and infiltrations of Palestinian militants into Israel.

"We told them (Israeli generals) that we are arranging a plan to deploy the Palestinian security forces into both the northern and southern parts of Gaza," Maj. Gen. Moussa Arafat, a Palestinian security chief, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "In the first stage, it will be in the north, and then we will move into the south."

Israeli officials said up to 1,000 Palestinian officers would be deployed, and that Israel accepted the plan. "We are facilitating it and coordinating it (the plan), so it will go forward," one official said on condition of anonymity.

Palestinian security commanders were meeting with Abbas on Thursday afternoon to finalize the details, officials said. Israeli and Palestinian officials said the deployment will begin Friday.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said Abbas has been working hard to persuade militants to halt their attacks, but called for Israel's help as well. "A cease-fire by the Palestinians requires a cease-fire by the Israelis," he told a news conference.

"Israel is prepared to cooperate with the Palestinians on condition that there is no terrorism," Sharon said Wednesday. But he warned that Israel is not prepared to accept the loss of life because of lack of Palestinian cooperation, implying that if talks fail, Israel will take action.

The decision defused rising tensions that appeared to be leading toward an Israeli invasion.

Israel broke off contacts with Abbas' government last Friday, after an attack killed six Israeli civilians at a Gaza-Israel crossing point. A Palestinian suicide bombing that killed an Israeli security agent at a Gaza checkpoint on Tuesday escalated tensions.

Arafat, the Palestinian security commander, said Israel had agreed to re-open some blocked roads in Gaza in exchange for the Palestinian deployment.

The army reopened the Gaza checkpoint targeted in Tuesday's suicide bombing to Palestinian traffic. Israeli military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Rafah border crossing into Egypt would be reopened on Friday. The crossing, the main exit point for Gaza Palestinians traveling abroad, has been closed since a Dec. 12 attack on an Israeli military post killed five soldiers.

While things were quiet in Gaza, Israeli troops shot and killed a 13-year-old boy near the West Bank village of Tubas.

Residents said the boy, Salahadin Abu Mohsen, was carrying a homemade toy rifle and was in a crowd of youths who were throwing rocks at troops. The army said troops fired at a gunman who was spotted in a crowd of rioters.

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