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A
Palestinian boy shows the picture of his father abducted by
Israeli forces for allegedly planting a bomb at Hebrew
University
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GAZA
CITY, August 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli and
Palestinian officials held talks Wednesday, August 21, on an Israeli
pullback from Gaza, as Israeli security officials said they smashed
what they call a Hamas cell in occupied east Jerusalem, and
assassinated the brother of a jailed head of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine.
Palestinian
security sources said the officials met at the Erez checkpoint in the
northern Gaza Strip despite a deadly Israeli raid into a Gaza town
that prompted Palestinian accusations of “doubletalk”, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) said.
“We
discussed a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in line with the initial
understanding on a pullout from Bethlehem and Gaza,” a senior
Palestinian security official told AFP after the meeting.
“I
will brief political and security leaders on the results of this
meeting,” he added, without elaborating.
The
Israeli army issued a statement saying that the meeting “took place
in a positive atmosphere and its objective was to verify how to put in
place the arrangements made by the defense minister.”
It
said the Palestinians had agreed to “immediately act to restore calm
to the land and prevent violence” while the Israeli army would
“continue to apply measures to improve the lives of the Palestinian
population in humanitarian terms.”
Israeli
and Palestinian officials are set to hold similar talks later in the
week, the statement added.
Meanwhile,
Israeli security officials said they had smashed a Hamas cell
operating out of east Jerusalem which they accused of carrying out
some of the deadliest attacks inside the Jewish state in recent
months, including a bombing at a cafe in Jerusalem’s Hebrew
University, AFP reported.
The
five members of the central cell of the group were arrested on
Saturday night, following a tip-off from Palestinian collaborators,
security officials said.
Four
of the abducted men hold Israeli identity cards and the security
sources described the unit, headed by east Jerusalem resident Wael
Kassem, as sophisticated and well-organized.
Another
10 Palestinians, mainly from the West Bank town of Ramallah were also
abducted for their alleged role in eight attacks spread out over a
half-year.
However,
the Israeli sources did not say when the other 10 were arrested.
Meanwhile,
the Palestinian leadership lashed out at Israel as the security talks
opened, accusing it of doubletalk in expecting the Palestinians to
discuss security after the overnight raid into the southern Gaza Strip
town of Khan Yunis which killed one civilian and wounded four.
“The
continuation of Israeli attacks without the slightest provocation from
the Palestinian side ... can only have a destructive outcome,” said
the statement carried by the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
On
Tuesday, August 20, Israeli undercover forces in Ramallah assassinated
the brother of Ahmed Saadat, jailed head of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine, outside his Ramallah home.
The
slaying sparked vows of revenge from the Palestinian nationalist
group, which killed an Israeli minister in October in revenge for
Israel’s assassination of Saadat’s predecessor in Ramallah.
In
Cairo, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday, August 22,
discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Syrian Foreign
Minister Faruq al-Shara, Egypt’s official news agency MENA reported.
Egyptian
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher attended the talks held in the
presidential summer residence, in the western coastal town of Marsa
Matruh.
The
meeting “comes in the framework President Mubarak’s contacts and
consultations on the Arab, regional and international levels, to calm
the situation in the Palestinian occupied territories and (halt)
Israeli aggressions,” MENA said.
“It
also comes as part of the efforts seeking a resumption of the
Palestinian-Israeli peace process.”
Shara
arrived in Egypt from Saudi Arabia late Wednesday, in a show of Syrian
support to both Arab regimes, long-time allies of the United States
which have recently been stung by criticism from within the
superpower.
