Five Killed in Middle East, U.S. Talks 'Positive'

12/08/2002| IslamWeb

Fresh violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip brought to at least five the number of deaths over the weekend, as U.S. and Palestinian officials held security talks in Washington which Yasser Arafat called "very positive." Israeli occupation soldiers killed a Palestinian gunman in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, and a Palestinian infiltrated the internationally illegal Jewish settlement of Mehora in the West Bank late on Saturday, killing a woman. Israeli occupation soldiers shot the attacker dead.

Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops in Nablus and the West Bank city of Tulkarm on Friday and Saturday.

In renewed U.S. efforts to end Middle East bloodshed, Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razzak al-Yahya met CIA director George Tenet on Saturday to discuss reorganizing Palestinian security forces.

Proposed reforms include a merger of the branches of the Palestinian Authority's (PA) security services in a bid to make them more accountable and able to rein Resistance activists.

"The talks were very positive," Arafat told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, referring to the Yahya-Tenet talks and those Yahya held with Secretary of State Colin Powelland national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

In his first public acceptance of foreign involvement in security reform, Palestinian President Arafat said on Friday U.S., Egyptian and Jordanian officials would oversee the changes.

Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab states to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. Egypt has traditionally played a key mediating role between Israel and the Palestinians, who launched an uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000.

An Israeli official said on Sunday Egypt had lost some of its effectiveness as a mediator because it had scaled back ties with Israel.

Haim Ramon, chairman of the Israeli parliament's foreign relations and defense committee, said in a visit to Cairo:

"I think, if Egypt will improve the bilateral relationship between Egypt and Israel they will be more effective in the role that they can fulfil between Israel and the Palestinians."

ARAFAT NOT OPTIMISTIC

In his comments on Sunday, Arafat added: "The Israeli leadership is looking only for more escalation for its military plans and they don't want to achieve any peace."

The talks in Washington coincided with fresh violence on the weekend.

The Gaza Strip battle began after an Israeli repairing a security fence was wounded by Palestinian fire. Occupation army sources said their soldiers killed a Resistance man.

The attacker was from the Resistance group Hamas, which has stepped up attacks since Israel killed its military leader, an aide and 14 others, nine of them children in an air raid in the Gaza Strip last month.

Hamas said it carried out the attack on Mehora settlement.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinians carry the body of Hamas militant Mohamed Al-Masri, killed by Israeli troops yesterday, during his funeral in the Gaza Strip, August 11,2002. Masri was reportedly killed during an infiltration attempt into an Israeli settlement. (Suhaib Salem/Reuter