The Israeli army has eased its control over Palestinian territories as Palestinian prime minister Mr Mahmud Abbas's cabinet said it expected an answer within days from militant groups to a proposed truce in anti-Israeli attacks.
"The complete closure has been lifted ," an Israeli military spokesman said. Israel announced last Friday that it had agreed to a phased handover of security control in Gaza and West Bank towns to the Palestinians, following talks between Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart Mr Abbas last Thursday, ahead of a summit with US President George W. Bush.
The US President yesterday said he would do all he could to reach a Middle East agreement "and see it enforced."
Meanwhile an activist of the hardline Palestinian group Hamas was killed by the Israeli army Saturday during raids in the West Bank. Troops shot the man near the West Bank city of Jenin after finding him and another militant attempting to plant an explosive charge on a path used by Israel patrols.
The statements from the Palestinian cabinet and Mr Bush came despite a vow by the hardline Islamic group Hamas to continue attacks as long as Israel failed to make substantial concessions. Two summits slated for next week are part of efforts to end 32 months of Palestinian-Israeli bloodshed with the so-called roadmap for peace, which calls for both an end to violence and the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
The first will be hosted Tuesday by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and will bring together Bush and a number of moderate Arab leaders. On Wednesday, King Abdullah II of Jordan will host Bush, Abbas and Sharon at the Jordanian coastal resort of Aqaba.
The Palestinian cabinet said after its weekly meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah that it expected "to have an answer from the different groups on the (truce) proposal and hopes to forge a national accord on this question." It said contacts would continue with the groups until they gave their answer on the proposal to effectively suspend the uprising against Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
The latest timeline contrasts with comments made by Abbas in an interview with Israeli public television Friday that he believed he could convince the militant groups to agree to the truce in two to three weeks. Hamas remained defiant, with a leader warning Friday suicide attacks would stop only if Israel halted all "aggression" against Palestinians.
AFP