Israeli soldiers during their daily raids in Palestinian towns

NABLUS, West Bank, August 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - While Israeli and Palestinian officials were to meet Sunday, August 17, to set a timetable for handing over security responsibility for West Bank towns and dismantling more checkpoints, the Israeli army detained a local leader of the Palestinian resistance group Islamic Jihad overnight in the West Bank town of Qalqilya, raising doubts over the true Israeli intentions behind the alleged proposed withdrawals.

Israeli and Palestinian sources said Sunday that Akif Nazal, 38, was detained along with another activist who has not been identified, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Israeli sources confirmed the arrests had been made in an operation during which occupation soldiers came under fire but did not respond.

Commenting on the latest raid, senior Islamic Jihad official Mohammed al-Hindi said that the latest arrest "is new evidence that Israel is continuing their escalation policy in the region to destroy efforts by all parties to cool the situation.

“The fact that Israel detained a political member of our group means simply that it tends to torpedo all peace moves and wants to push us to hit back,” al-Hindi told Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite channel.

"It seems that the hand of the occupation will stay inside the city even as it withdraws," he said.   

Meetings

That’s how Palestinians go to their farms

Meanwhile, and in a bid to bolster the troubled peace process, local commanders and security chiefs from both Israeli and Palestinian sides were due in either Qalqilya or Jericho Sunday afternoon to finalize arrangements for Israeli army withdrawals from both towns in the next few days, Palestinian security sources told AFP.

The officials were also expected to discuss plans for pullbacks from Tulkarem and the key city of Ramallah, the sources added.

The Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot reported that the transfer in Jericho would take place during Monday night and a similar operation would take place in Qalqilya Thursday.

Maariv reported that the handovers in Ramallah and Tulkarem would take place only after the Palestinians had provided a detailed security plan, especially on how they would prevent wanted activists from the cities attacking Israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz approved the transfers at a meeting with Palestinian security chief Mohammad Dahlan late last week in an effective U-turn after previously saying no such move would take place until the Palestinians showed a willingness to crack down on resistance activists.

The transfers are thought to have run into opposition from the Israeli internal security service Shin Beth.

"As long as the PA (Palestinian Authority) does nothing to prevent attacks, as long as armed groups are reinforcing themselves, Israel must maintain control of these cities," a senior Shin Beth official told Maariv.

The pullbacks are supposedly designed to provide much-needed momentum to the U.S.-backed roadmap for peace which has run into a series of obstacles since its launch in Jordan at the beginning of June.

The Palestinians have argued that they are in no position to move against the armed resistance in areas which remain under Israeli control, while also pledging that any crackdown could lead to civil war.

The Israelis handed over security control of parts of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Bethlehem seven weeks ago but additional pullbacks have since been frozen amid a new outbreak of violence.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad are currently observing a three-month ceasefire but two bombings last Tuesday in retaliation for a bloody Israeli army raid in Nablus have led to fears that the truce is slowly unraveling.

Islamic Jihad vowed Thursday to avenge the killing of local leader Mohammed Sider in an Israeli army raid in al-Khalil. The overnight arrest of another local (political) leader in Qalqilya was likely to heighten tensions further.

Meanwhile, Palestinian sources said that Israeli and Palestinian commanders would meet in the southern Gaza Strip to discuss the removal of more checkpoints near the Morag settlement.

The dismantling could lead to the reopening of a road between the main southern towns of Rafah and Khan Yunis which has been closed since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000.