Handover of the West Bank town of Jericho to Palestinian control was delayed by last-minute disagreements, a setback to implementation of a truce declared a week ago in a gala summit meeting, aiming at ending four years of Mideast bloodshed.
Jericho, a quiet oasis in the Jordan River valley, is to be the first of five towns to revert to Palestinian control, but in meetings on Monday, officials were unable to agree on how much territory the Palestinians would receive and where the new Israeli roadblocks would be placed, officials on both sides said.
Meanwhile, Israel's leaders grappled with opposition to a plan to evacuate the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank in the summer.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, returning to the West Bank after talks with militant groups in Gaza, said he hoped to present a new Cabinet in a day or two.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, who lives in Jericho and took part in some of the unsuccessful transfer talks, told reporters that most of the problems were resolved, and the others required decisions from the Israeli defense establishment.
It was expected that Palestinians would regain control of Jericho yesterday. Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no further meetings were scheduled.
Four years of Palestinian-Israeli confrontations have largely bypassed Jericho, isolated from the rest of the West Bank population centers. Israeli forces rarely enter the town, but soldiers at roadblocks control entry and exit.
The Palestinians want the Israeli presence moved far away from the town of 20,000, but Israel is balking. The Palestinians want control of the small town of Ouja, 8km north of Jericho, as part of the deal.
According to terms of the truce announced at a summit at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Israel is to hand over five towns, starting with Jericho and continuing with Tulkarem, Qalqiliya, Bethlehem and finally Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian government.
Unlike previous withdrawals, Israel is also supposed to remove roadblocks around the towns, allowing for more freedom of movement. During the four years of violence, Israel has erected dozens of roadblocks in the West Bank, explaining that they are necessary for security, but crippling Palestinian society and economic life as well.
Except for a large-scale violation on Thursday, when Hamas militants fired dozens of mortars and rockets at Jewish settlements after soldiers killed a Palestinian, the truce declared last Tuesday has held.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday that his representatives were discussing the planned evacuation with Palestinian officials. He said he would ask his Cabinet to vote on Sunday to endorse the pullout, authorized in principle several months ago.
The procedural vote is necessary because the Justice Ministry ruled that Jewish settlers must be given five months' notice. The Cabinet will be asked later to vote on each of the withdrawal's four phases as they come up. Sharon faced his own opposition, however, and Cabinet ministers have received death threats from extremists over the pullout plan.
Sharon told a meeting of members of parliament from his Likud Party that one leaflet in circulation carried a threat to dig up his late wife, Lily, from her grave. The family has hired guards for the grave, he said.
Violence reached the entrance to Jerusalem at nightfall on Monday. Hundreds of Jewish settlers blocked traffic and scuffled with police at the entrance to Jerusalem.
Israeli media said more than 30 protesters were arrested and several police were injured in confrontations in Jerusalem and other key highway intersections.
Settlers and their backers oppose any withdrawal in the West Bank or Gaza, claiming that all the land belongs to the Jews and fearing that it would lead to international demands to dismantle all 150 settlements in the West Bank.
At the entrance to Jerusalem, demonstrators caused a huge traffic jam. Young female demonstrators sat down on the highway, chanting slogans, forcing police to drag them away.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in