Israel agrees to remove West Bank roadblocks
2/9/2005
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israel will lift travel restrictions on Palestinians in parts of the West Bank and abandon several major checkpoints as part of its withdrawal from five towns in the coming weeks, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday.
Free travel would be the most tangible improvement yet in the lives of ordinary Palestinians, sending a strong message that a cease-fire with Israel is beginning to pay off. Abbas made the announcement a day after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a Mideast summit in Egypt.
A senior Israeli military official confirmed that several roadblocks would be removed as part of the handover of security responsibility for the five towns to the Palestinians. The handover of Jericho, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya, Bethlehem and Ramallah will occur during the next three weeks, according to a timetable agreed to by Abbas and Sharon on Tuesday.
A second meeting between the two, set for Sharon's Sycamore Ranch in southern Israel, could take place "in the coming days or a week," said Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Sharon.
At the Egypt summit, Abbas and Sharon announced an end to hostilities, raising hopes of ending the violence and restarting long-stalled peace moves.
However, in continued violence, Palestinian gunmen attacked Israeli motorists in two shootings in the West Bank, causing no injuries, and a 22-year-old Palestinian walking near a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza Strip was seriously wounded Wednesday by gunfire from the direction of the settlement.
The army said it had fired warning shots at four people who entered an unauthorized area near the Gush Katif bloc of settlements, but could not confirm hitting anyone.
Abbas has been working to prevent militant attacks on Israel and planned to head to Gaza on Wednesday evening to meet with leaders of armed groups. Sharon has responded with promises to release prisoners and pull out of the West Bank towns.
On his return to his West Bank office in Ramallah on Wednesday, Abbas said: "We agreed that they (Israelis) will pull out of five Palestinian ... cities and surrounding areas, and also on the removal of roadblocks, which will be manned by the Palestinian forces."
Israeli army checkpoints have devastated the Palestinian economy in recent years. They ring all West Bank towns, manned by soldiers checking documents of those seeking to pass.
Long lines form at the checkpoints and troops often use them to seal off towns entirely. Israel says it needs the checkpoints to prevent attacks.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia met with the West Bank security commanders and instructed them to be prepared to take responsibility for the five areas, participants said.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said Israel and the Palestinians would form four committees that would begin meeting next week to coordinate the moves.
At the summit, Egypt and Jordan announced they would return their ambassadors to Israel after a four-year absence. Gissin said the ambassadors would arrive within the next two weeks.
The Palestinians wanted the summit to signal the start of new peace moves, but Israeli officials say Sharon wants to carry out his withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank this summer before entering into negotiations on a final peace deal.
The pullout hit a bump when Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he would lead a campaign to put the plan to a national referendum, which could delay the pullout for months. However, Shalom would be hard-pressed to muster parliamentary support for a national vote.
Israeli commentators said Shalom posed the challenge to Sharon partly because he was upset about not being asked to attend the summit. Sharon opposes a referendum as a delaying tactic.
Following the summit, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz announced measures to alleviate conditions for Palestinians, including allowing 1,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to work in Israel and several hundred more to work at the Erez Industrial Zone between Israel and Gaza, defense officials said.
The number of West Bank Palestinians who will be allowed to work in Israel also will increase, but details were not released.
Before the violence erupted four years ago, tens of thousands of Palestinians worked in Israel. Now, just a few hundred have permits.
Additionally, 500 merchants will be allowed to enter Israel for business, and relatives will be allowed to visit Gaza residents incarcerated in Israeli prisons. Four hundred Palestinian employees of international organizations will be allowed to move freely between Gaza and the West Bank.
A roadblock cutting off Gaza's main north-south road will be opened 24 hours to public transport and Palestinian security vehicles, though not to private cars. Travel on the road had been restricted since the violence began.
Cease-fires have been declared before, but major changes in the region — chiefly, the death of longtime Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, and Sharon's Gaza pullout plan — have generated hopes that this one will stick.
"Maybe this time," read the headline in Wednesday's Maariv daily newspaper, emblazoned over a picture of Sharon and Abbas smiling and shaking hands.
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