Israel insisted today that there would be no new pullbacks from the West Bank or Gaza Strip until the Palestinian leadership cracked down more effectively on militants.
Israeli commanders made the ultimatum at security talks last night, prompting Palestinian officials to accuse them of reneging on a new security deal reached last weekend.
"The Israeli army will not move so long as the Palestinians are failing to impose calm on the ground by starting to fight the terrorist groups," an Israeli security official said. "As long as the Palestinian security services fail to extend their writ over the armed terrorist groups which control the street, we won't be able to make another pullback."
His comments marked a sharp toughening of Israel's position from just two days earlier when Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer expressed satisfaction with Palestinian efforts to rein in attacks by militants.
"I've found my Palestinian interlocutors to be sincere and serious, but the question is whether they have the capability to stop terrorism," the defence minister said. "If we have attacks every day, it is clear that nothing will work ... but we should not demand too much from them (the Palestinians) in the immediate future, so as to leave some room for hope."
He is credited with thrashing out the new security plan with the Palestinians, under which they are expected to clamp down on militants in return for a phased Israeli pullback from territories it reoccupied two months ago.
AFP