Israel will transfer security control over several West Bank towns to the Palestinians in coming days, Israel's defense minister said yesterday, hours after he met with a Palestinian negotiator to work out the details of Israel's troop redeployment.
A senior Palestinian security official said the first four towns -- Ramallah, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya and Jericho -- would be handed over on Wednesday.
The planned handover is the latest sign of rapid changes on the ground. It is accompanied by a rebuilding of trust after more than four years of fighting and a flurry of diplomatic meetings.
Israel has informed Palestinian officials that it is ready to withdraw "within a very short period of time" from all West Bank population centers and to return to positions it held before the outbreak of fighting in September 2000, said Hassan Abu Libdeh, a senior Palestinian official.
Such a withdrawal is part of the long-stalled US-backed "road map" peace plan, which both sides now say they are ready to implement.
Abu Libdeh said the pullback would include the removal of some of the roadblocks that now ring Palestinian towns and severely disrupt daily life in the West Bank.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, meanwhile, said Feb. 8 is emerging as a target date for a summit between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a crucial stop toward ending hostilities and resuming peace talks.
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, is to arrive in the region two days earlier, for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Abu Libdeh said the summit would be prepared in detail, and that a decisive meeting of Abbas and Sharon aides would be held later this week.
"We want a very successful summit that will end with results," he said.
Palestinian officials said they expect a wide-ranging agenda that will include the declaration of a formal truce, a large-scale release of Palestinian prisoners and the resumption of peace negotiations. Israel, however, appears reluctant to move from security concerns into political matters.
The renewed peace hopes came after a sharp drop in violence. Abbas has obtained a promise from armed groups to halt attacks on Israel, and has deployed Palestinian police across the Gaza Strip.
In response, Israel's army chief said he would halt military operations in Gaza and scale them back in the West Bank.
Yesterday, a 65-year-old Palestinian civilian was killed by Israeli army fire along the Gaza-Egypt border, Palestinian officials said. The military said the man was deep inside a no-go zone, close to an Israeli army post along a patrol road near the border, when troops shot him.
Late Saturday, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met for nearly five hours with Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Dahlan, a former Palestinian security chief, at a Tel Aviv to discuss a West Bank redeployment.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
RSS