|
|
|
|
|
|
Israel Redeploys Forces Shifting Pressure To Arafat
 |
|
Israeli tanks returned to take up positions just outside the areas they had left.
|
JERUSALEM, March 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Scaling down its biggest military onslaught on Palestinians, Israel withdrew from three West Bank towns Friday but failed to comply with U.S. demands that it leave all Palestinian-controlled areas to boost U.S. envoy's truce mission.
The Israeli army kept its tanks on the edge of key Palestinian towns. Tanks, pulled out of Ramallah, Qalqilya and Tulkarm in the West Bank overnight, later returned to take up positions just outside the areas they had left, reported BBC’s online news service.
Israeli troops also left the refugee camp of Al Boureij in the Gaza Strip, but they remain in parts of Bethlehem.
Israel described its troop redeployment, which marked the end of its biggest ground military offensive for at least 20 years, as a goodwill gesture designed to help General Anthony Zinni's efforts. But Palestinians dismissed the moves as a political trick.
Zinni, on his third mission in the region, told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during their Thursday night meeting that the U.S. demands that Israel remove all its forces from Area A - Palestinian controlled territory. Only then will a cease-fire be declared.
Zinni's demand came after similar, public statement from the State Department in Washington. "We want to see a full withdrawal," said spokesman Richard Boucher. "That is what we want to see them do."
During their meeting early Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told Zinni that both Israel and the Palestinians need to give the U.S. envoy all the support necessary so he can fulfill his mission, Israel Radio reported.
Zinni was scheduled to meet in the evening with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. Israel Radio reported that Arafat was going to present a Palestinian cease-fire plan to the U.S. envoy.
On Friday, Zinni held talks also with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres before going to Ramallah.
But, even as the talks got under way, there were reports of more violence.
A Palestinian mother, her three children and another child died in the Gaza Strip after a donkey cart triggered a landmine, Palestinian officials said. The area was occupied by Israeli tanks until Friday morning., news agencies reported.
However, a spokesman for the Israeli forces claimed the army had nothing to do with the explosion.
In a sign contradicting Zinni’s hope for achieving a ceasefire, outgoing Israeli army Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz Friday expressed doubts that a ceasefire would be reached soon, in remarks published Friday.
When asked by the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily newspaper how long he thought the conflict would carry on, Mofaz said: "I don't think that it will end in the next month or two. It could last anywhere from several months to longer than that.
"In the end I believe there will be some kind of agreement. The question is how long it will take," Mofaz said.
His comments came in stark contrast with widespread optimism in the region following the arrival of U.S. peace envoy Anthony Zinni.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Friday that he thought Zinni's mission had "a serious chance" of bringing about a ceasefire.
|
|
|
|
