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Palestinians Welcome
as Israelis Reject G8 Call for Monitors
GAZA CITY, July 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Palestinians said Thursday they welcomed the Group of Eight (G8) proposal for international monitors to oversee a Middle East truce as the best way of saving peace, as they say they fear Israel is still plotting "war".
"Sending an observer force to the Palestinian territories is the best way of rescuing the peace process," Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's top aide Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
But he said the G8 should set up a mechanism to force the Sharon government to accept the initiative, accusing Israel of failing to abide by the Mitchell report, an internationally-backed plan aimed at halting the violence and bringing the two sides back to the negotiating table.
The Palestinians have long demanded the dispatch of such monitors since the eruption of the violence in the region almost 10 months ago hailed the proposal, the subject of a long-standing appeal to the international community, but Israel has strenuously objected.
Meeting in Rome, G8 foreign ministers agreed in principle to back the deployment of international monitors to oversee implementation of the Mitchell report.
The current G8 initiative has been previously opposed the United States out of deference to Israel's vehement dislike of the idea.
"We believe that in these circumstances third party monitoring accepted by both parties would serve their interests in implementing the Mitchell report," said a document approved by the ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Abu Rudeina said the Palestinians also called on the G8 to put in place a mechanism "to force the Israeli government to accept this important international demand."
The G8 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
In Cairo, a Palestinian diplomat hailed the G8 declaration as "extremely positive."
"It's an extremely positive step, but it must not be linked to a return to quiet or Israel's approval, because such a link means" they will never be sent, said the Palestinian ambassador to the Arab League, Mohammed Sobeih.
The Palestinians won the backing of Arab foreign ministers meeting here Wednesday to send the appeal to the leaders of the G8 nations meeting in Italy through the weekend.
Sobeih also warned that any delay in sending observers would increase the chances of violence.
"What good would the observers be in case of calm," Sobeih asked. "We need observers immediately because any delay in sending them gives terrorists and settlers a chance to launch more attacks."
For its part, Israel rejected the call for international monitors.
"As long as there is continuing violence and terrorism it would be useless to deploy monitors in the territories," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin told AFP.
"The problem we face today in the territories is not a problem of observers, it's a problem of observance of the ceasefire," he said, referring to the truce mediated by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet on June 13th that has so far failed to stem the 10-month tide of bloodshed.
Israel's opposition to the deployment of observers did not surprise Sobeih.
"Any non-aggressive party will welcome sending observers while the aggressor will reject it," he said.
Meanwhile, a car bomb explosion in the Mediterranean resort of Netanya shook Israel, on alert for a feared wave of attacks, but police said all indications were that it was a criminal attack.
Israel sent reinforcements to the West Bank following the death of two Israeli soldiers blown up in a bomb attack and four Palestinians killed in an Israeli helicopter strike against the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
Israel said the action was a warning to the Palestinians to stop the uprising in which more than 650 people have died and was not a prelude to a major offensive.
"No one aims to attack the Palestinian Authority ... and we have no intention to reoccupy any part of the zone" under Palestinian control, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer told Israeli public radio.
But Arafat's number two, Mahmud Abbas, said Israel was still plotting a "war".
"There are real scenarios prepared by Israeli government and army. According to plans, Israel will begin with assassinating Palestinian leaders and will end in invading the territories under Israeli control," he told Voice of Palestine radio.
Security officials from the two sides met Wednesday under U.S. auspices in a new effort to restore calm on the ground, Israeli media reports said, adding that they parted acrimoniously without achieving any progress.
The United States, which has seen the five-week-old ceasefire undermined by continuing violence, called for "maximum efforts" to restore calm.
Sharon told Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in a telephone call that it was vital the international community "exercises heavy pressure on Arafat, speaks in a unified voice against terrorism and unequivocally condemns terrorism."
The Israeli security cabinet gave its full backing Wednesday to the policy of "intercepting terrorists" and announced a plan to boost security on the border between the West Bank and Israel.
Israel said the Hamas cell targeted in Tuesday's strike was planning a bomb attack on the closing ceremony next week of the Maccabiah Games, what Israel calls the Jewish Olympics, which has drawn some 2,000 athletes from abroad.
A Palestinian was wounded overnight when settlers pelted the car in which he was travelling near a Jewish settlement west of Ramallah with rocks, hospital sources and witnesses said.
Also, an Israeli soldier was lightly wounded in a clash with Palestinians in the West Bank town of Hebron after Israeli forces "mistakenly" moved briefly into a Palestinian controlled area, military sources said.
And Israeli public radio said a Palestinian armed with a pipe bomb was arrested in the Arab Israeli village of Abu Gosh west of Jerusalem.
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