OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, August 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Late Sunday,
August 18, Israel agreed to withdraw troops from areas of the Gaza
Strip and Bethlehem it has reoccupied since the start of the
Palestinian uprising in September 2000 if the Palestinian security
forces crack down on resistance fighters. Palestinian factions say
that this accord aims to abort the intifada.
Israeli
Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin on Monday, August 19, said that
despite an accord with the Palestinians for a partial Israeli
pullback, the army would not be dropping its fight against what he
called “militants” in the territories.
“The
army is not going to leave the territories and will continue to fight
terrorism. The Palestinian Authority will have to prove it is fighting
against terrorism. There’s no question of allowing any more Jewish
blood to be shed,” Rivlin told Israeli public radio, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“It
should be clear that the absolute minimum condition for progress
toward a solution is to follow the plan of President Bush, which calls
for a new Palestinian leadership to emerge,” he said.
“The
two parties agreed to start putting into operation this plan on Monday
in Gaza and Bethlehem where the Palestinians will take charge of
security,” the Israeli defense ministry said.
A
statement did not specify the magnitude of the pullback, but said
contacts would continue in the coming days between security officials
on both sides to implement the plan on the ground.
The
Palestinians said the plan would be put into effect within the next 48
hours.
After the talks the Palestinian team returned to Ramallah to brief
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
Israeli
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer described implementation of the
“Gaza First” plan as a confidence-building move that could open
the way for future political and security talks.
“The
steps are essential as a starting point for the future political and
security process,” he said in the statement.
“Therefore,
we have to start the implementation immediately, step-by-step. This is
a realistic process ... a real opportunity for the Palestinians to
stop the violence and terror and to start on a new path,” he added.
Meanwhile,
the Palestinian Resistance Group, the Islamic Jihad on Monday vowed to
step up attacks on Israeli targets to thwart the deal.
“The
Palestinian people’s answer will be to escalate the resistance to
foil (Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin) Ben Eliezer’s plan,” said
Khalid El-Batsh, a Gaza Strip leader for the group.
“We
in Islamic Jihad reject this agreement because it will consecrate the
Israeli occupation of our land,” he told AFP.
“This
accord aims to destroy the intifada,” he said, adding that the
accord would only serve to deepen division between Palestinian
factions.
The
accord worked out at top-level security talks was also immediately
slammed by another Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
“Hamas
and the Palestinian people reject any agreement which aims at
destroying our resistance and ending the intifada, which is what this
agreement is aimed at,” Gaza-based Hamas official Ismail Haniya told
AFP by phone.
“This
will only give security and quiet to the Zionists and the occupation,
not to our people,” Haniya said.
He
vowed Hamas would keep fighting as long as Israel continued its
occupation of Palestinian territory. “We are not able to accept
partial quiet in Gaza when all the cities, towns and refugee camps in
the West Bank are under Israeli aggression and siege,” Haniya added.
Asked
whether he feared the Gaza First plan would provoke a crack-down on
Hamas activists by Palestinian security forces, Haniya answered only
that Hamas would never allow Palestinian national unity to be broken.
“We
will not allow (this agreement to cause) internal clashes because we
have to have Palestinian national unity,” he said.
Haniya
also slammed the agreement as a cynical “first step” to secure
some kind of calm before an expected U.S. attack on Iraq. “I am sure
that the Israeli Zionists will not respect any agreement but this
agreement is the first step before a strike on Iraq,” he said.
Among
the Israeli delegation to the talks were army chiefs and
representatives of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.
The
Palestinian negotiation team included Haj Ismail Jaber, head of the
Palestinian security services in the West Bank, and Arafat’s
security advisor Mohammed Dahlan.
Israeli
officials have long argued the Gaza Strip is the best testing ground
for renewed cooperation since the Palestinian security apparatus
remains relatively intact there unlike in the West Bank which has been
devastated by Israeli offensives.
Ben
Eliezer first presented the plan to Yahya in Jerusalem on August 5,
but talks then faltered over the issue of where Israel would withdraw
from.
Palestinians
feared that Israel would try to chalk up credit for a Gaza pullback
while maintaining its stranglehold on the re-occupied West Bank, but
Israeli officials insisted the withdrawals could be applied to
Bethlehem and even Al-Khalil (Hebron).
