RAMALLAH Ñ The Palestinian Authority has agreed to establish a new
counter-insurgency squad to halt suicide bombings in Israel.
Palestinian sources said the agreement was relayed to the United States
during talks in Washington last week. A PA delegation led by Interior
Minister Abdul Razak Yehya held talks with senior Bush administration
officials, including CIA director George Tenet.
The sources said the United States pressed for the establishment of a PA
counter-insurgency unit as a leading element in a plan for Palestinian
security reform. They said Washington appears willing to focus on launching
such an agency rather than insist on an immediate restructuring of the 12
Palestinian security organizations.
Under the U.S. plan, the new PA unit would focus on halting Palestinian
insurgency attacks against Israel. The sources said Egypt and Jordan would
train the unit under the supervision of the CIA.
The sources said numerous issues remain unresolved, including
recruitment for such an agency. PA officials said Israel has detained more
than 6,000 PA security officers on charges of helping the insurgency war
against the Jewish state.
The ruling Fatah movement appears divided over the U.S. plan. Fatah
political leaders appear to support a U.S. plan for a ceasefire in the war
against Israel. The Fatah-led Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade has objected and in a
communique warned against cooperating with foreigners.
"I think Fatah has a clear political strategy to establish a state in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to refrain from striking innocent civilians
and to stop attacks in Israel," Fatah leader Hussein Sheik said on Tuesday.
Sheik said the Fatah movement has decided to end attacks within the
pre-1967 borders of Israel. This does not include the West Bank, Gaza Strip
and eastern Jerusalem. The movement is said to have reached the decision in
a meeting of the Fatah Central Committee last week.
Fatah political leaders have argued that a ceasefire announcement would
lead to U.S. and international pressure on Israel to withdraw from West Bank
cities and positions in the Gaza Strip. The leader said the ceasefire would
not halt attacks on Israeli civilian and military positions in West Bank and
Gaza Strip.
But the Al Aqsa Brigade, regarded as the most active insurgency group,
rejected peace negotiations and set conditions for what was described as a
limited ceasefire. This included an end to Israeli assassinations of
Palestinian insurgents and a full withdrawal from PA-controlled areas.
Israeli officials have played down the Fatah ceasefire debate. They said
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, who leads Fatah, does not want
a halt to Palestinian attacks on Israel. They said the Fatah members who are
calling for a limited ceasefire comprise an insignificant portion of the
movement.
On Tuesday, Israeli military authorities prepared to carry out the first
resettlement of the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Israel's High
Court is scheduled to rule on Tuesday on a government request to deport
three Palestinians from the West Bank city of Nablus to the Gaza Strip who
were said to have aided suicide bombers.
It is the first time since the start of the September 2000
Israeli-Palestinian war that Israeli authorities have employed the use of
resettlement. Israel deported hundreds of Palestinian insurgents during the
Palestinian uprising from 1987 to 1993.
