Militant groups have agreed to temporarily halt attacks on Israel -- a precursor to a formal truce agreement -- to give Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a chance to persuade Israel to stop targeting militants in return, Palestinian officials said on Monday.
The movement toward a cease-fire, coupled with efforts by Palestinian police to stop militants from firing rockets from Gaza into Israel, has raised hopes that a deal can be reached to end four years of bloody conflict between the sides.
PHOTO: EPA
In the only serious incident on Monday, soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian in a no-go zone near the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel, apparently planning to plant a bomb, Army Radio and the military said. On Jan. 13, Palestinian attackers killed five Israelis at the crossing.
Abbas said he was close to sealing a ceasefire agreement with the militants.
"Differences have diminished and I hope that there will be a final agreement very soon," he told reporters when he arrived back in the West Bank city of Ramallah after nearly a week of talks with militant leaders in Gaza.
Palestinian officials say Abbas will not formally declare a truce until he receives Israeli guarantees that it will halt military operations, including arrest raids and targeted killings of militants.
Palestinian negotiator Ziad Abu Amr said on Monday the armed groups have promised to temporarily suspend attacks on Israel.
"They will continue doing that for some time to see if Israel is ready to accept demands and hold the truce," Abu Amr told the Voice of Palestine radio.
Israeli officials have long resisted making a formal commitment to stop targeting militants, but said they would "respond to quiet with quiet," halting military raids. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has reacted positively to the recent calm but warned of a tough response if attacks resume.
Abbas won a Jan. 9 Palestinian election to replace Yasser Arafat, who died in November. Israel shunned Arafat after the current round of violence began in September 2000, accusing him of encouraging terror attacks. But Israeli officials have been optimistic that Abbas, a pragmatist who has criticized the armed Palestinian uprising, will help bring calm to the region in advance of Israel's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip later this year.
In the new spirit of hope, Israeli President Moshe Katsav, who holds a largely ceremonial post, called Abbas on Monday to talk about the importance of working together for peace, Katsav's office said.
Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Israel should help Abbas win popular support for his policies.
"There are things we have to do, in everyone's opinion, such as removing the obstacle of the checkpoints," Peres told Israel Army Radio on Monday.
Peres is the leader of the dovish Labor Party, Sharon's newest coalition partner.
Peres also warned that Iran is trying to disrupt the emerging truce. Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas have been funding some Palestinian militant groups.
"Iran ... is the center of terrorism in the Middle East," Peres said.
In a sign of internal change under Abbas, Palestinian workers early yesterday began tearing down illegal buildings along Gaza City's Mediterranean beachfront. Two bulldozers leveled kiosks in an operation the local police commander said would continue until hundreds of such structures are destroyed.
The commander, Moussa Alaian, said Abbas ordered the operation after he saw the illegal construction.
"We are a new era now. We must respect the law," Alaian said, indicating the long-ignored laws would now be enforced under the Abbas regime.
Hundreds of heavily armed Palestinian police protected the workers, and large crowds of people came to watch, but there was no resistance.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters in Cairo that Abbas may visit there next week as part of his efforts to broker a truce. Egypt has worked as a mediator between the Palestinians and Israel in recent years.
US envoy William Burns, a senior State Department official, is to arrive in the region later this week for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the truce efforts.
In another development, Israel has resumed construction of one of the most sensitive parts of its separation barrier in the West Bank, Israeli media reported Monday.
The 4km section is part of a fence that would surround the settlement of Ariel, deep in the West Bank. Residents of the nearby Palestinian town of Salfit stopped construction for four months by appealing to Israel's Supreme Court.
At first, Israel planned to include Ariel on the "Israeli" side of the barrier, fencing in a significant slice of West Bank land to reach the settlement. Palestinian and international criticism and court cases forced Israel to revise the route, planning instead to build a security fence around the settlement, but it would still enclose Palestinian land.
Israel says it needs the barrier to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers and other attackers from infiltrating. Palestinians charge that the route of the barrier, dipping into the West Bank, amounts to an Israeli land grab.
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