TEL AVIV Ñ Palestinian gunners have resumed their fire of Kassam-2
short-range rockets toward Israel.
The rocket fire came during the visit to Israel by U.S. Vice President
Richard
Cheney.
Israeli military sources said two rockets landed in Israeli territory
north of the Gaza Strip. The sources said nobody was hurt in the Palestinian
attack on Monday.
Hours before the Kassam attack, Israeli and Palestinian officials met to
discuss the resumption of security cooperation. Palestinian sources said the
Israeli delegation submitted a plan to reduce the violence and ensure a
military withdrawal from Palestinian areas.
Cheney has been criticized by the Palestinian Authority for refusing to
meet Arafat during his one-day visit. PA Information Minister Yasser Abed
Rabbo said the PA would not authorize anybody to meet Cheney.
"We are in fact perplexed that such a senior American official who is on
an important tour in the region, designed to address the current crisis in
the Middle East, will meet one of the parties in this conflict without
meeting the other, represented and lead by President Yasser Arafat, the
leader of the Palestinian people," Abed Rabbo said.
Israeli military forces withdrew from Palestinian Authority areas in the
northern Gaza Strip and Bethlehem. Military sources said Israeli troops
killed three Palestinian insurgents during a clash overnight Tuesday.
Palestinian sources said another three Palestinians were killed in clashes
in the West Bank. An Israeli officer was also killed in the clash, which
took place in the Jordan Valley.
Hours later, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he was willing to
allow PA Chairman Yasser Arafat to leave for the Arab League summit in
Beirut next week. But Sharon linked this to a Palestinian ceasefire and did
not rule out that Arafat would be banned from returning to the PA areas
should Israel continue to come under Palestinian insurgency attacks.