ISRAEL: The Israeli military did not impose its nightly curfew in Bethlehem yesterday in the first significant attempt in months to extinguish the two-year-old Mideast conflict. From Peter Hirschberg in Jerusalem
Late last night, the army was scheduled to withdraw its forces from the West Bank town as part of a deal aimed at relieving Israel's stranglehold on Palestinian cities in exchange for a crackdown on militants.
But the agreement, which is to be overseen by Central Intelligence Agency officials as well as Egyptian and Jordanian security men, still faces formidable difficulties: Palestinian militant groups vowed yesterday to ignore it and there are serious doubts over whether Palestinian Authority security forces - shattered by repeated Israeli strikes - can impose it.
"From our side, we will take all the necessary procedures to achieve internal security and public security in those areas (from which Israel withdraws)," said Palestinian Interior Minister Mr Abdel Raziq Yehiyeh, who sealed the agreement with Israeli Defence Minister Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer at a late-night meeting on Sunday in Tel Aviv.
As part of the first stage of the deal, Israel is to ease restrictions on the Palestinian population, including curfews and travel bans, and begin withdrawing its forces not only from Bethlehem but also from areas it has occupied in the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers are to be replaced by Palestinian security forces.
But with the history of the conflict littered with failed ceasefire attempts, the "Gaza-Bethlehem First" deal, which was negotiated without any third-party assistance, generated only limited optimism yesterday. One indication of Israel's deep scepticism was the fact that troops were to take up positions surrounding Bethlehem after leaving the town.
While describing the development as a "glimmer of hope", Mr Mark Sofer of the Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was vital that "five minutes after evacuating an area or a check post, we will not see a suicide bomber or a car bomb passing through that very area we have evacuated." It is not at all clear whether Mr Yehiyeh can follow through on his pledge to impose security control in the West Bank, where repeated Israeli raids, including arrests of security force members and the bombing of police installations and vehicles, have left the Palestinian security forces in tatters.
They will struggle to contain the militant Islamic groups who yesterday vowed to continue the uprising. An Islamic Jihad spokesman said the agreement would not convince his group to halt attacks, while a Hamas official, Mr Ismail Haniya, termed the arrangement "an Israeli plot to sabotage the intifada".
Sensing a possible showdown with the Islamists, Mr Yehiyeh said those groups who opposed the deal were essentially saying that "they want a continuation of the siege and the continuation of the occupation of the cities".
Sporadic violence continued meanwhile in the West Bank, with Palestinians reporting that a 14-year-old boy was shot and killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers near the northern West Bank town of Jenin. In Nablus, the Israeli army blew up a house in the town's main market which it said was being used as a bomb lab.