Israeli security hand-over hits snag
TULKAREM, West Bank – Israeli and Palestinian commanders were trying to iron out the last disputes over the hand-over of a second West Bank town to Palestinian security control, but disagreements over security issues signaled trouble ahead for peacemaking efforts.
Israeli officials doubted whether the town of Tulkarem would revert to Palestinian control today, as originally planned, after a meeting of security commanders broke up Sunday in disagreement. Talks were to resume today.
Similar disputes held up the transfer of the isolated desert oasis of Jericho last week. A temporary compromise solved that, but similar disputes appeared in talks about Tulkarem, in a much more sensitive location on the Israel-West Bank line.
The hand-overs were part of a truce announced at a summit last month in Egypt by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and reinforced last week at a meeting of Palestinian factions in Cairo.
Violence has dropped considerably in the last five weeks, but two incidents on Sunday underlined the fragility of the situation.
Palestinians opened fire on Israeli police and soldiers searching for stolen cars in the Amari refugee camp next to the West Bank city of Ramallah, the military said, wounding two, one critically.
Several hours later, a Palestinian man was shot and critically wounded by an Israeli border policeman in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Border Police spokesman Oren Goanias said the Palestinian tried to steal a weapon from a border policeman.
The violence threatened to upset last week’s truce declaration by Palestinian militants. The militants pledged to halt attacks on Israel for the rest of the year – an important boost for Abbas as he tries to resume peace talks.
But Hamas and Islamic Jihad conditioned their support on Israel’s stopping all military operations against the Palestinians. Israel has promised to honor the truce if quiet continues.
Despite the incidents, talks about the hand-over of Tulkarem proceeded. Last week Israel turned over the isolated desert oasis of Jericho to the Palestinians, the first of five towns to revert to Palestinian control under the Feb. 8 summit understandings.
“We handed Jericho over last week and tomorrow it is expected that Tulkarem will be transferred to Palestinian responsibility,” said Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz. He said plans were under way to transfer a third town, Qalqiliya.
Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, were not optimistic that the talks today would lead to a hand-over the same day.
Tulkarem is on the line between the West Bank and Israel opposite Israel’s narrowest section – nine miles from Israel’s coast on the Mediterranean Sea. Before Israel erected a section of its contentious separation barrier around three sides of the town, several suicide bombers infiltrated into the nearby Israeli city of Netanya and blew themselves up, killing dozens.