Israeli, Palestinian killed as both sides pursue dialogue

10/07/2002| IslamWeb

An Israeli officer and a Palestinian teenager were killed in separate clashes despite a lull in violence that has raised hopes for reviving peace talks.The violence came amid efforts to keep incipient Palestinian-Israeli talks on track and inter-Arab consultations ahead of an international gathering next week on the Middle East crisis. The meeting in New York will involve the United States, Russia, European Union and the United Nations.

In Amman, Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher said that Arab participants in the talks -- Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia -- will demand clear "mechanisms" for a peace settlement.

But Israel is first stressing reform of Palestinian institutions and increased security as its forces end a third week of reoccupation of Palestinian West Bank towns in a bid to stop suicide bombings.

On Wednesday, an Israeli army officer was fatally wounded when Palestinian militants opened fire on his unit in the Gaza Strip and a Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank.

Captain Haim Lev, 24, died of his wounds, Israeli sources said. His unit was on routine patrol searching for tunnels used to smuggle arms across the border with Egypt, when it came under fire from the gunmen on a nearby building.

In the West Bank, Rami Kutush, a 19-year-old refugee, was killed and two other Palestinians wounded by Israeli gunfire during clashes in the Askar camp near Nablus, Palestinian medical sources said.

The Israeli troops were responding to Palestinian stonethrowers defying a curfew imposed on the area, witnesses said.

Another Palestinian was shot and wounded by Israeli troops in the village of Alar, near Tulkarem, after they imposed a curfew on the village and began search operations, witnesses said.

Israel reoccupied nearly all of the West Bank three weeks ago after suicide bombings and other attacks killed 31 Israelis in three days.

They have since launched systematic roundups of Palestinian males in a search for militants wanted for attacks against Israel.

Palestinian security sources said Israeli armored vehicles and troops withdrew Wednesday from a building they had occupied close to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah.

The sources expected the siege around the compound to ease further, but did not elaborate.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Noam Katz said Israel saw a narrow "window of opportunity" for resuming a political dialogue amid the lull in violence but warned it still saw no sign of a Palestinian Authority shift towards stopping "terrorist" attacks.

In the first cabinet-level meetings in months, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met Monday with new Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayad and Tuesday with new Interior Minister General Abdel Razaq al-Yahiya.

Palestinians expect more high-level meetings.

Another Israeli official said the government was considering unblocking the Palestinian Authority taxes and customs revenues frozen by the Jewish state since violence resumed in earnest in September 2000.

The move was discussed by Peres and Fayad in their first meeting on Monday, as a possible way to tackle the economic crisis in the Palestinian territories where overall unemployment is more than 40 percent and rising, he said.

"We are considering this move, but it has not been finalised, there is no agreement," said the Israeli official, who asked not to be named.

"On the other hand, we want to be sure that the money does not serve other purposes, like terrorism, either directly or indirectly."

The plan appears to the first large carrot dangled by Israel to the Palestinian Authority since Arafat started his reform programme, in which US President George W. Bush said he has discerned signs of progress.

But a senior Palestinian official insisted that Peres had had nothing "serious" to offer in his talks with the new Palestinian ministers.

"Peres came to these talks without anything in his hand," information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told a press conference in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

The Palestinian Authority would be unable to continue security and other reforms if Washington failed to pressure Israel into lifting its siege of Palestinian land, he warned.

Washington and Israel both want the Palestinians, who have been voicing more public discontent with their leadership recently, to drop Arafat at the elections he has promised in January 2003.

Violence in the region has dropped drastically since Israel mounted its second reoccupation of West Bank towns after a new series of suicide bombings and shooting rampages last month.

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Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher said that Arab participants in the talks -- Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia -- will demand clear "mechanisms" for a peace settlement.