Declaration of Truce Expected Sunday, to Coincide with IOF Withdrawal from Gaza

News, June 2003, Al-Jazeerah.info

28/06/2003
Palestine Media Center- (PMC)

According to a mutual agreement “in principle” on Friday, announced one day ahead of a visit by the US national adviser Condolizza Rice, Palestinian and Israeli field commanders are expected to meet Sunday to draw up detailed plans for the withdrawal of Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) from reoccupied Palestinian territories in Gaza Strip and the West Bank Governorate of Bethlehem, to coincide with a truce to be declared by Palestinian factions on the same day, according to media reports.

An official declaration of a three-month truce will be officially announced Sunday in Gaza, Ramallah and Cairo, the Palestinian daily al-Ayyam reported on Saturday.

The declaration will announce “the suspension of military operations against the Israeli occupation for three months, effective today,” al-Ayyam said.

Earlier a senior Palestinian official told AFP that Israel agreed in principle to withdraw its IOF troops from the Gaza Strip and Bethlehem.

"This agreement is the first step toward a total Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as the application of the 'roadmap’,” President Yasser Arafat’s media adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP, in the first official confirmation of the landmark accord.

A leading Israeli official was also earlier quoted anonymously by Israel’s public television as saying the withdrawal of IOF troops would take place next Monday or Tuesday.

Israeli and Palestinian commanders will meet on Saturday evening and Sunday to hammer out the final points of the IOF army’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which is planned for Monday or Tuesday.

The IOF will pull out of Bethlehem later, the television reported.

“The Palestinian security apparatus is ready to take on this huge responsibility,” the Palestine National Authority (PNA) Minister of State for Security Affairs Mohammad Dahlan said.

The officials were speaking after the negotiations in Tel Aviv between Dahlan and the IOF coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territories General Amos Gilad.

The talks on Friday were also attended by US special envoy John Wolf.

USA ‘Applauds’ the ‘Progress’

“We are pleased with the progress we have seen,'' US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Washington.

The withdrawal agreement drew a warm welcome from the White House, which said it “applauds” the deal, ahead of a visit to the region by US President George W. Bush’s national security adviser Rice.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in a statement that the "United States applauds the agreement in principle between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to transfer security responsibilities in Gaza.”

Rice is expected Saturday to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) night in the West Bank city of Jericho on Saturday and with the Israeli premier Ariel Sharon, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and IOF minister Shaul Mofaz on Sunday, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.

The Americans will oversee the implementation of the agreement, while Israel will allow the free movement of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the IOF will end its raids against Palestinians, Israeli television reported.

A 100-metre (yard) wide demarcation zone will separate the Palestinians and the IOF forces around Israeli army positions and Jewish settlements. The IOF will only be allowed to open fire if Palestinians encroach on the zone, Israeli soldiers will also now only be allowed to fire if their lives are in danger or in operations to arrest “armed suspects”, the Israeli TV said.

Marwan Barghuthi Plays Central Role

Ahmed Ghuneim, a senior Fatah official involved in inter-Palestinian negotiations, said the agreement to suspend all attacks against the IOF for three months was not a “surrender” move, but one that was in the interests of the Palestinian people.

“We are glad that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have approved it and we call on all other Palestinian factions to join in this agreement,” he told AFP.

"This announcement is not an announcement of surrender but it serves, first and foremost, the Intifada (Palestinian uprising) and the Palestinian people."

Ghuneim said Marwan Barghuthi, the Palestinian MP and the West Bank Fatah chief who was kidnapped and detained by IOF on 15 April 2002, had played a central role in drafting the ceasefire.

"Barghuti was the main contributor to this effort and put in the main ideas,” Ghuneim said.

According to an AFP correspondent who saw a draft of the agreement on Thursday, the introduction stresses the need for a period of calm.

"The Palestinian organizations announce the suspension of their operations against Israel for three months in exchange for a cessation of Israeli assassinations of Palestinian militants, an end to incursions, a release of prisoners and an end to house demolitions,” the text says.

The document also says that Hamas and other factions who oppose the “roadmap” would not "obstruct the political process, short of endorsing it.”

Hamas: Truce Document within Days

Meanwhile, Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin said his group has informed Palestinian PM Abbas of its views and a senior official of the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” said a truce document would be released within the next few days.

"There is a shared document, which reflects a shared position, and was agreed on by Hamas, Jihad and Fatah. It will be announced very soon, within a few days,” Abdelaziz al-Rantissi told AFP, adding that Hamas "prepared the document."

Rantissi said the three factions now needed to inform Arafat’s "Palestinian Authority, our brothers in Egypt and other concerned parties.”

The truce document applies to settlers and IOF soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza in addition to civilians in Israel, fulfilling a key Israeli demand, the AP reported.

In exchange, the Palestinian groups asked Israel to suspend its extra-judicial assassinations, labeled by Israeli officials as “targeted killings,” and release detainees.

“I believe that it will be a good document,” said Rantisi. “It will serve the interest of the Palestinian people and will preserve Palestinian unity and the option of resistance.”

However, a senior Israeli official said a truce with the Palestinians is not worth the paper it’s written on. Describing it as "poison covered in honey,” Parliament member Yuval Shteinitz of the ruling Likud party called it a ploy by the Palestinian groups.

"They will use the cease-fire and partial Israeli withdrawal in order to recover and to rebuild, and to prepare the next round of violence,” he said.

But Palestinians envision their deal with Israel on Friday as paving the way towards a complete IOF withdrawal to the pre September 2000 lines, and as a first step towards the creation of an independent Palestinian state, in accordance with the US - sponsored and internationally - adopted “roadmap” peace plan.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

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