Palestinian and Israeli officials were to hold talks last night after the meeting was repeatedly postponed and canceled because the Israelis needed more time to prepare and Palestinian violence marked the past week.
In Ramallah, in the West Bank, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said the meeting would go ahead in Jerusalem but held its success contingent on Israel's military presence in the West Bank.
"I believe if Israel is really serious in the resumption of the political process they have first to immediately withdraw from the Palestinian territories," he told reporters after Arafat met with Russian envoy Andre Vedovin.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Meanwhile a Palestinian human rights group has asked Israel's Supreme Court to block any deportation of relatives of West Bank suicide bombers to the Gaza Strip, saying the move violates international law.
Attorney Hader Shkirat, director of the Law Society, a Palestinian human rights organization, said he filed a motion Friday as a preventive measure after Israeli forces destroyed the homes of two suspects in this week's attacks and arrested 21 of their relatives.
Following the arrests, Israeli officials said the Israeli attorney general, Elyakim Rubinstein, had determined that relatives of West Bank suicide bombers could be deported to Gaza -- but only if they had a direct link to acts of terrorism.
A Justice Ministry spokesman, Jonathan Beker, said deportations could occur "for example, if they encouraged the bomber to join the terrorist organization or even to volunteer for the suicide attack, or were involved in his recruitment."
Israel made the arrests after back-to-back attacks this week left 10 Israelis and two foreign workers dead -- the first attacks in nearly a month.
In Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip Israeli soldiers backed by tanks and bulldozers entered the refugee camp and demolished a metal workshop and damaged a house, clashing briefly with Palestinian gunmen, according to Palestinian residents. No injuries were reported.
The high-level meeting was initially scheduled for last Saturday but the added political and security elements of the discussions forced the Israeli delegation, headed by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, to postpone the meeting so they could better prepare.
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