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 | | From: | AP | | Subject: | Palestinian Police to Deploy on Border | | Date: | Thu, 20 Jan 2005 19:30:20 EST |
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*Associated Press/AP Online
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The planned deployment of
Palestinian forces on the Gaza-Israel frontier could be a first step
toward a wider return of Palestinians' security control in their
areas of Gaza and the West Bank - the situation before fighting
broke out with Israel in 2000, the Palestinian foreign minister said
Thursday.
Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath made the assessment after
Israel and the Palestinians resumed security coordination, agreeing
on a Palestinian plan aimed at preventing rocket from Gaza into
Israel.
Palestinian officials said about 1,000 police would be
positioned, starting Friday, in the areas of northern Gaza where
militants have fired dozens of rockets at Israeli communities just
beyond the fence. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz approved the
deployment.
However, sporadic violence persisted - two 13-year-old
Palestinians were killed in separate clashes with the Israeli
military.
Maj. Gen. Moussa Arafat, a Palestinian security chief,
outlined the deployment to The Associated Press. "In the first
stage, it will be in the north, and then we will move into the
south," he said. Arafat presented the plan to his Israeli
counterpart in a late-night meeting on Wednesday, signaling renewal
of security cooperation.
The prospect of Palestinian police taking action to rein in
militants quelled calls in Israel for immediate military action to
stop the rocket fire.
A period of calm could lead to peace negotiations, starting
with coordination of Israel's planned pullout from Gaza in the
summer - but renewed violence would likely trigger an Israeli
military offensive, already approved by Israeli leaders.
Greeting Gaza worshippers after morning prayers for the
Feast of the Sacrifice holiday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas
said, "We believe in peace, and we believe in negotiations, and
we want to reach peace through negotiations."
Abbas also met Thursday with his security chiefs to work out
the final details of the plan to prevent rocket fire and other
attacks on Israeli towns.
The deployment agreement could be the "beginning of the
process of trying to coordinate so that Palestinian Authority can
redeploy its forces in all Palestinian areas, at least in Gaza, and
then in the West Bank," Shaath said.
Such a redeployment could restore the situation that
preceded the outbreak of fighting in September 2000. In its response
to the violence, Israel sent troops into the West Bank and Gaza,
retaking areas handed over to the Palestinians under interim peace
deals.
Mofaz praised the Palestinian leadership. "Today we are
witness to the beginning of positive developments on the Palestinian
side, which are an expression of the understanding that terrorism
does not pay," he said at a memorial ceremony for 22 victims of
a double bombing in 1995.
In further signs of easing tensions, the army reopened the
Gaza checkpoint targeted in a suicide bombing on Tuesday. Israeli
military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border would be opened to incoming
traffic on Friday. The crossing has been closed since a Dec. 12
attack on the Israeli military post there killed five soldiers.
Despite the diplomatic progress, violent incidents
continued.
Israeli troops shot and killed a 13-year-old boy who fired a
homemade rifle at them near the West Bank village of Tubas,
Palestinian witnesses said. The army said a large crowd of people
gathered, and they were beginning to riot when troops spotted what
appeared to be a gunman in the crowd and opened fire.
Also, troops shot and killed a 13-year-old boy in the Rafah
refugee camp in southern Gaza, hospital officials said. The military
said soldiers fired at two suspicious Palestinians crawling in a
no-go zone.
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