Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had just 24 hours left early Monday to enforce a shaky truce under an Israeli ultimatum, after almost a dozen Palestinians were killed in a bloody weekend of protests marking the first anniversary of their uprising against military occupation.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Arafat concluded a ceasefire deal on Wednesday, with the violence to be reined in over a 96-hour period starting from Friday, when both sides held a high-level joint security meeting.
But a weekend of unrest that saw 11 Palestinians killed and scores injured in anti-Israeli demonstrations undermined the first half of that period, and Israel warned Sunday that Arafat must act, otherwise the Israeli army would feel free to retaliate, reports said.
Arafat, on a visit to Cairo Sunday to discuss the situation with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, accused Israel of launching a "deliberate escalation" against the Palestinians despite the truce plan agreed upon last week.
Palestinian officials also said that a member of their preventative security services who was shot dead in the volatile West Bank town of Hebron was trying to prevent clashes between stone-throwing youths and Israeli troops when he was riddled with bullets.
Israel troops earlier Sunday gunned down two Palestinian men allegedly trying to cross illegally into Israel seeking work on the labor black market, Israeli officials said, taking the death toll of the year-long Middle East conflict to 841, including 649 Palestinians and 169 Israelis, according to AFP estimates.
Contacts were maintained between Israel and the Palestinians Sunday, but seemed to yield little results.
Peres met with Palestinian Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qorei and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Ereikat, who said the meeting was "difficult," reported the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper.
The three met to discuss the steps being taken and those still needed to implement the Tenet Paper - named after the head of the CIA - and bring about a ceasefire.
Ereikat said that the meeting ended without any results and that he had agreed to hold another meeting with Peres later, said the paper.
"The atmosphere at the meeting was very tense," said Ereikat at its conclusion, less than one hour after it began.
Ereikat added that that he asked Peres how he would react if 13 Israelis were killed, more than 250 Israelis were wounded, more than 37 houses were demolished and more than 350 dunams of land were expropriated.
Ereikat answered his own question: "You would conquer all the territories from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip," the paper quoted him as saying.
Ereikat added that since the meeting between Peres and Arafat last Wednesday, the Israeli army had tightened the closures around West Bank towns and had taken military steps against the Palestinian people.
Ereikat invited Peres in the meeting "to come to Jericho and see the closure for yourself, and how the town is disconnected from the surrounding villages."
For his part, Peres acknowledged that "Yasser Arafat is not in an easy position, given the anger and hatred to be overcome among Palestinians."
But Raanan Gissin, spokesman for right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Arafat was perfectly capable of ending the bloodshed if he wanted, AFP said.
He said that by Tuesday Arafat must "arrest the terrorists" on a list supplied by Israel, while cracking down on hardline Palestinian Islamist groups who have vowed to fight on.
Gissin said Arafat must outlaw Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which had vowed to fight on despite the ceasefire, saying that Arafat would never qualify for Washington's anti-terrorism coalition otherwise.
General Amin Al Hindi, the head of Palestinian intelligence services, told AFP that "the ceasefire does not mean Palestinians arresting our people," while Hamas and Jihad officials seemed confident they were safe from a security crackdown.
"All Palestinians refuse arrests because it is a legal and legitimate right to resist," Abdel-Aziz Al Rantissi, a Hamas leader in Gaza City, told AFP.
Later Sunday, Israeli public television reported that Israel's domestic security agency Shin Beth recently dismantled a cell of 20 Hamas activists.
In another development, the Israeli army announced it had opened the crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Egypt despite the unrest, adding that it would ease other restrictions on the Palestinian territories in line with the agreement.
But Ereikat dismissed the pledges, saying that in Jericho in the West Bank, where conditions were meant to have been relaxed, the Israeli security cordon had been tightened.
Gissin said the cabinet would reconvene by Tuesday to see if the Palestinians had fulfilled their side of their deal, saying that if they had not, Israel would revert to security measures to ensure its "self-defense," AFP said – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
