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Israel Abducts Eight Suspected Hamas Members
AL KHALIL (HEBRON) Dec. 27 (News Agencies) - The Israeli army abducted eight students in an overnight raid on a student dormitory in Hebron, Palestinian security officials said Thursday.
Israeli army radio said the detainees were members of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, in the West Bank city, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Israeli commandos, backed by armored vehicles and helicopter support, entered into a Palestinian-ruled section of Hebron, close to the Ahli hospital, at around 3:00a.m. (0100 GMT).
Palestinian security officials said some shots were fired in the operation, which lasted more than two hours, but that there were no injuries.
The Israeli army also abducted 17 Palestinians, including five Palestinian Authority security service members, in a raid in the West Bank village of Azoun the night before.
In an interview published in the Asharq al-Awsat paper Thursday, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat called Israel's decision to block him in the West Bank town of Ramallah a "dangerous violation" of the Oslo peace accords between the two sides.
"The Oslo agreement specifically points to the freedom of movement...the movement of people, products and the freedom of the movement of Palestinian officials," Arafat told the London-based daily newspaper.
"Therefore these last Israeli decisions are a dangerous violation of the Oslo agreements or the other signed accords, beside being a violation of human rights, [the Geneva conventions] and international resolutions," he said.
The Israeli cabinet of hardline Prime Minister Ariel Sharon blocked Arafat in Ramallah and banned him from making a traditional appearance at the Christmas Midnight Mass in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, in a move that sparked anger worldwide, including from the Vatican.
Israeli government officials said Arafat could only attend the Christmas celebrations if he jailed those who allegedly killed tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi in October, and who, Israel says, are still in Ramallah.
"I did not expect Sharon to besiege me in Ramallah and Israel's claim that I am out of the game is a violation of the Oslo agreement," Arafat said. "The Palestinian people alone decide on their leadership, through a democratic operation.
"So what Sharon has said is a blatant violation of the Oslo agreement and of the document of mutual recognition which I signed with my partner in the negotiations, the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, and which stipulated mutual recognition between the state of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization," he added.
Meanwhile, Jordanian government spokesperson Saleh Kallab said Thursday that Palestinian-Israeli political talks must lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state on all Palestinian land occupied in 1967.
Kallab was speaking after a brief visit to Amman by a senior Palestinian delegation, which briefed Jordanian officials on the nature of political discussions with Israel, before going to Egypt on a similar mission.
Arafat decided Wednesday to send parliament speaker Ahmed Qorei and information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo to inform the Egyptian and Jordanian governments of the progress of talks with Israel.
A Palestinian source in Gaza told AFP that Qorei and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres had reached an agreement on the basis of future peace talks.
"A senior Palestinian delegation has briefed Jordanian officials on the latest Palestinian-Israeli [political] meetings and the Israeli proposals," Kallab told state-run Petra news agency following the meeting late Wednesday.
"The talks centered on the necessity to set up a Palestinian state on all Palestinian land that were occupied in 1967 and that the discussions will deal with all the pending issues between the two sides," Kallab said.
Kallab stressed that U.S.-brokered peace plans must form the basis of the Palestinian-Israeli discussions.
"The Mitchell report and the basic guidelines of the Tenet report will be the guiding principles at the start of the Palestinian-Israeli discussions. These talks will start from there before anything else," Kallab said.
The Tenet plan - drawn up by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency chief George Tenet - proposes a six-week cooling-off period between Israel and the Palestinians to be followed by the implementation of confidence-building measures called for by the Mitchell panel, headed by former U.S. senator and Northern Ireland peace mediator, George Mitchell.
The Mitchell report calls for an immediate ceasefire, an Israeli freeze on settlement building and full Palestinian efforts to prevent "terrorism" in order to move back to the negotiating table.
Both plans emerged after Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries to have peace treaties with Israel, proposed earlier this year a series of confidence-building measures to help both sides back to the negotiating table.
A document setting out the Peres-Qorei agreement, of which AFP obtained a copy in Arabic, handles four points which include the Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state "within eight weeks", and a complete ceasefire within six weeks.
Kallab said however "the Israeli proposals have not yet been clearly defined and do not touch upon details."
"There is talk about Israeli proposals and they are being examined by the Palestinian side who are consulting with brother Arab countries," Kallab said.
On Wednesday, Palestinian officials also had talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher on the current situation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Maher's ministry said Thursday.
Also attending the meeting was Osama al-Baz, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's chief adviser, who said the meeting was "aimed at discussing with our Palestinian brothers the best ways to relaunch the peace process."
Baz accused the Israelis of not being interested in reviving the peace process, adding that "we are still a long way" from substantive talks.
Qorei, for his part, called on Washington to step in and "assume its responsibilities" in implementing plans for ending the 15-month violence which has killed more than 1,100 people, most of them Palestinians.
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