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Source: Palestinians accept cease-fire
Associated Press
Four Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in a firefight Friday as Israeli soldiers raided two homes in a hunt for a top Hamas bombmaker. Despite the violence, Islamic militants have accepted a proposal to halt attacks on Israelis for three months, a senior militia official said Friday.
IN THE TWO-HOUR battle, Israeli soldiers blew up a house and fired more than a dozen tank shells as combat helicopters fired machine guns toward dozens of gunmen. The target of the raid, Adnan al-Ghoul, the chief bombmaker of Hamas, was not present.
The Israeli operation came as Palestinian groups were working out the final details of a three month cease-fire declaration after agreeing to a temporary halt to attacks.
A formal truce announcement is to be made Sunday, according to officials close to the talks.
A militia leader, who spoke on condition that neither his name nor the name of his organization be used, said that the "trilateral document is now ready," referring to the agreement.
Palestinian negotiators said Thursday that Hamas, the largest of the Islamic groups, and the smaller Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad had signed an accord along with Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
If comments by the Palestinian side are true, they provide the first confirmation from the militants that agreement has been reached. A cease-fire is a key element for starting the "road map" peace plan that envisions creating a Palestinian state by 2005.
ISRAELI TROOP PULLBACK TALKS
Also Friday, Israeli-Palestinian talks on the terms of an Israeli troop pullback in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Bethlehem -- in line with a U.S.-backed peace plan -- yielded "real progress," a Palestinian official said.
Negotiators resolved the key sticking point, control over the main north-south road in Gaza, and another meeting was scheduled for later Friday to conclude a deal, the official said.
A troop pullback would be the first major step by Israel toward implementing the peace plan, which calls on Israel to return to positions it held before the outbreak of fighting in September 2000. The plan also requires Palestinian security forces to dismantle militias, but Palestinian leaders have said they will not launch a crackdown.
An Israeli pullback, coupled with a promise by Palestinian militants to halt attacks on Israelis for three months, could be a major boost for Washington's "road map" to Palestinian statehood by 2005. The peace initiative was launched by President Bush on June 4, but implementation has been halting until now.
Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. national security adviser, is to arrive in the region on Saturday, as Bush's personal envoy, to talk to the Palestinian and Israeli prime ministers about the plan.
En route to the Middle East, Rice called on the European Union to outlaw the political wing of Hamas to dry up the flow of donations to the group, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in bombings and shootings.
Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader, suggested Friday that despite the Israeli raid, the truce talks were still on. "A plan for a truce ... will be announced along with other Palestinian factions at the right time," he told Lebanon's Al Hayat-LBC satellite television from Gaza. "Until this happens, the resistance and confrontation will continue."
HAMAS DOES NOT THREATEN REVENGE
Hamas' military wing issued a statement blaming the United States for the Israeli strikes but refrained for the first time from making customary threats of more attacks against Israel.
The Damascus-based leaders of the groups, Khaled Mashal of Hamas and Ramadan Shalah of Islamic Jihad, had agreed to a suspension of attacks earlier this week, but a formal announcement has been delayed until the weekend to add final touches.
Israel has shrugged off the emerging truce as an internal Palestinian matter and has said the hunt for militants would not cease.
"Such operations will continue until we have a cease-fire," Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner said. "If and when the cease-fire will be put into effect, then we will look again at that kind of (operation)."
Other Israeli officials have said that even if a truce is declared, Israel would still go after militants it felt were threatening its security.
ISRAELI RAID ON BOMBMAKER
In Friday's raid, an Israeli commando team surrounded the home of Omran al-Ghoul, a brother of the Hamas bombmaker and himself an operative of the group, in the village of Mujarkha in the central Gaza Strip.
A gunbattle erupted between soldiers and dozens of armed Palestinians. Omran al-Ghoul, as well as the bombmaker's 19-year-old son, Mohammed, and an Israeli soldier were killed. In a separate clash nearby, a bystander and another gunman were killed, Palestinian hospital officials said.
Palestinian witnesses said they heard 17 tank shells being shot during the battles and helicopters fired incessantly.
Adnan al-Ghoul, 42, also known as "The Engineer," has overseen the construction of homemade Qassam rockets that have been fired at nearby Jewish settlements and Israeli border communities. He has been wanted for more than a decade by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israel repeatedly has tried to kill him.
Thousands of Palestinians marched in a funeral procession for the four Palestinians killed and called for revenge. Some shouted out a warning for the Palestinian prime minister who is also called Abu Mazen: "Abu Mazen, listen closely. There is nothing except resistance."
The agreement for a three-month truce was worked out between Marwan Barghouti, West Bank leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, and heads of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Damascus. Mashal, the Hamas leader, then drafted the deal based on his discussions with Barghouti.
Barghouti is in an Israeli prison while on trial for alleged complicity in Palestinian attacks that killed 26 Israelis.
Negotiators said the truce would halt attacks by the three groups for three months and would apply to the West Bank and Gaza as well as Israel, a key Israeli demand. In exchange, they demanded an end to killings of militants and military strikes and the release of prisoners; however, these were not made conditions for beginning the truce.
© 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
MSNBC Terms, Conditions and Privacy ©2003
Associated Press
Four Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in a firefight Friday as Israeli soldiers raided two homes in a hunt for a top Hamas bombmaker. Despite the violence, Islamic militants have accepted a proposal to halt attacks on Israelis for three months, a senior militia official said Friday.
IN THE TWO-HOUR battle, Israeli soldiers blew up a house and fired more than a dozen tank shells as combat helicopters fired machine guns toward dozens of gunmen. The target of the raid, Adnan al-Ghoul, the chief bombmaker of Hamas, was not present.
The Israeli operation came as Palestinian groups were working out the final details of a three month cease-fire declaration after agreeing to a temporary halt to attacks.
A formal truce announcement is to be made Sunday, according to officials close to the talks.
A militia leader, who spoke on condition that neither his name nor the name of his organization be used, said that the "trilateral document is now ready," referring to the agreement.
Palestinian negotiators said Thursday that Hamas, the largest of the Islamic groups, and the smaller Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad had signed an accord along with Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
If comments by the Palestinian side are true, they provide the first confirmation from the militants that agreement has been reached. A cease-fire is a key element for starting the "road map" peace plan that envisions creating a Palestinian state by 2005.
ISRAELI TROOP PULLBACK TALKS
Also Friday, Israeli-Palestinian talks on the terms of an Israeli troop pullback in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Bethlehem -- in line with a U.S.-backed peace plan -- yielded "real progress," a Palestinian official said.
Negotiators resolved the key sticking point, control over the main north-south road in Gaza, and another meeting was scheduled for later Friday to conclude a deal, the official said.
A troop pullback would be the first major step by Israel toward implementing the peace plan, which calls on Israel to return to positions it held before the outbreak of fighting in September 2000. The plan also requires Palestinian security forces to dismantle militias, but Palestinian leaders have said they will not launch a crackdown.
An Israeli pullback, coupled with a promise by Palestinian militants to halt attacks on Israelis for three months, could be a major boost for Washington's "road map" to Palestinian statehood by 2005. The peace initiative was launched by President Bush on June 4, but implementation has been halting until now.
Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. national security adviser, is to arrive in the region on Saturday, as Bush's personal envoy, to talk to the Palestinian and Israeli prime ministers about the plan.
En route to the Middle East, Rice called on the European Union to outlaw the political wing of Hamas to dry up the flow of donations to the group, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in bombings and shootings.
Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader, suggested Friday that despite the Israeli raid, the truce talks were still on. "A plan for a truce ... will be announced along with other Palestinian factions at the right time," he told Lebanon's Al Hayat-LBC satellite television from Gaza. "Until this happens, the resistance and confrontation will continue."
HAMAS DOES NOT THREATEN REVENGE
Hamas' military wing issued a statement blaming the United States for the Israeli strikes but refrained for the first time from making customary threats of more attacks against Israel.
The Damascus-based leaders of the groups, Khaled Mashal of Hamas and Ramadan Shalah of Islamic Jihad, had agreed to a suspension of attacks earlier this week, but a formal announcement has been delayed until the weekend to add final touches.
Israel has shrugged off the emerging truce as an internal Palestinian matter and has said the hunt for militants would not cease.
"Such operations will continue until we have a cease-fire," Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner said. "If and when the cease-fire will be put into effect, then we will look again at that kind of (operation)."
Other Israeli officials have said that even if a truce is declared, Israel would still go after militants it felt were threatening its security.
ISRAELI RAID ON BOMBMAKER
In Friday's raid, an Israeli commando team surrounded the home of Omran al-Ghoul, a brother of the Hamas bombmaker and himself an operative of the group, in the village of Mujarkha in the central Gaza Strip.
A gunbattle erupted between soldiers and dozens of armed Palestinians. Omran al-Ghoul, as well as the bombmaker's 19-year-old son, Mohammed, and an Israeli soldier were killed. In a separate clash nearby, a bystander and another gunman were killed, Palestinian hospital officials said.
Palestinian witnesses said they heard 17 tank shells being shot during the battles and helicopters fired incessantly.
Adnan al-Ghoul, 42, also known as "The Engineer," has overseen the construction of homemade Qassam rockets that have been fired at nearby Jewish settlements and Israeli border communities. He has been wanted for more than a decade by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israel repeatedly has tried to kill him.
Thousands of Palestinians marched in a funeral procession for the four Palestinians killed and called for revenge. Some shouted out a warning for the Palestinian prime minister who is also called Abu Mazen: "Abu Mazen, listen closely. There is nothing except resistance."
The agreement for a three-month truce was worked out between Marwan Barghouti, West Bank leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, and heads of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Damascus. Mashal, the Hamas leader, then drafted the deal based on his discussions with Barghouti.
Barghouti is in an Israeli prison while on trial for alleged complicity in Palestinian attacks that killed 26 Israelis.
Negotiators said the truce would halt attacks by the three groups for three months and would apply to the West Bank and Gaza as well as Israel, a key Israeli demand. In exchange, they demanded an end to killings of militants and military strikes and the release of prisoners; however, these were not made conditions for beginning the truce.
© 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
MSNBC Terms, Conditions and Privacy ©2003
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