Palestinians set to receive Jericho

An Israeli soldier patrols the West Bank city of Hebron during a curfew on Tuesday, following a Palestinian ambush on an Israeli border police post in which two policemen were injured. PHOTO: EPA

The West Bank town of Jericho and surrounding areas will be trans-ferred to the control of Palestinians within the next few days -- possibly as early as this evening -- to be followed by the town of Tulkarem, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official said yesterday.

"It could be this evening, it could be in the next few days," ministry official Amos Gilad told Israel Army Radio.

The Palestinians' ability to prove they can halt terror after the Jericho handover is a condition for transferring control over other West Bank cities later, Gilad said.

Jericho had been relatively quiet throughout four-and-a-half years of violence that preceded a Feb. 8 truce that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared.

The planned handover of the two towns was announced on Tuesday night following a two-hour meeting between Abbas and Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz. At the time, Mofaz said Israel would hand over control of Tulkarem and Jericho in the coming days, but he did not say exactly when, which would be first, or how much territory would be included.

The talks at the main crossing point between Gaza and Israel were Abbas' first with an Israeli leader since Feb. 8.

Transferring control of five West Bank towns was part of the truce package, but the reconciliation has been held up by a Palestinian suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed five Israelis on Feb. 25.

Abbas said that not only the towns should be involved.

"We are not talking about towns, but also surrounding areas," he said. "If there are [Israeli] checkpoints, they must be removed."

Israeli roadblocks are a key point for the Palestinians. Dozens of barriers have limited movement in and out of the towns, strangling social and economic life. Israel insists they are necessary for security.

Officials said Israel preferred to hand over Jericho first, while the Palestinians were holding out for Tulkarem. The Tel Aviv bomber came from the Tulkarem area.

Tulkarem is on the 1949 cease-fire line that marks the West Bank at Israel's narrowest point -- 16km from the city of Netanya on the Mediterranean Sea.

Jericho, in contrast, is an isolated oasis in the barren Jordan River valley, far from Israeli population centers.

Previous West Bank transfers of authority have started with Jericho, including the first one in 1994, when former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat took control.