Posted on 06/27/2003 12:40:02 PM PDT by New Horizon
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians agreed a disengagement deal in the Gaza Strip on Friday and Hamas said it decided to suspend attacks on Israelis -- dramatic moves driven by U.S. pressure to shore up a Middle East peace plan.
The announcements came on the eve of a visit to the region by U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice as Israel and the Palestinians jockeyed for pride of place in promoting the "road map" personally backed by President Bush.
"An agreement has been reached on the issue of the (Israeli) withdrawal from Gaza and Bethlehem in the meeting that took place today between Israeli and Palestinian security officials," said a Palestinian official, who declined to be identified.
A senior Israeli political source called the disengagement deal, mediated by U.S. Middle East envoy John Wolf, an agreement in principle and said details of a troop pullback in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, had not been finalized.
He said the army would start redeploying on Monday in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian forces would assume security control and ensure militants did not fire mortar bombs and Qassam rockets at Jewish settlements and towns in Israel.
The source indicated Israel intended to cease its "track-and-kill" operations against Palestinian militants in the area, saying the army would follow "open-fire" orders in force before the start of the Palestinian revolt in September 2000.
Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin announced it had decided to halt anti-Israeli attacks in an uprising for statehood. Washington has branded the militant group an "enemy of peace" for suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis.
"Hamas has studied all the developments and has reached a decision to call a truce, or a suspension of fighting activities," Yassin told Reuters.
But Yassin said a truce would carry conditions and be declared formally only after Hamas and other militant groups agreed on a joint position and statement.
TRUCE "NOT WORTH THE PAPER IT'S WRITTEN ON" -- ISRAEL
A senior Israeli government source said such a cease-fire would not be "worth the paper it's written on." He repeated Israel's bedrock position that Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas must dismantle all militant factions.
The United States has lined up behind Israel in its demand for the crackdown, mandated by the peace plan. Rice was likely to hammer home that point in talks with Abbas in the West Bank city of Jericho on Saturday.
Palestinian officials have said a confrontation with Hamas, an Islamic organization widely popular with Palestinians feeling the brunt of Israeli military action against their 33-month-old revolt, could start a civil war.
Charting details of the Israeli pullback in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli source said Palestinians would be able to move freely on the area's main roads except for one near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom, where a bypass route would be paved.
He said buffer zones were to be established between the remaining Israeli troops guarding settlements and Palestinian security forces.
"In all areas where Palestinians take (such) responsibility, Israel will not operate there," another Israeli source said before the disengagement deal was announced.
(With additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem)
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