The joint Israeli-Palestinian security committee will reconvene Thursday evening, with U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni in attendance. The committee will meet for the second time in 24 hours in an effort to reach a cease-fire declaration.
The committee will convene after aanother meeting between Zinni and Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Tel Aviv.
Wednesday night's committee meeting ended without agreement.
Palestinian sources said that there had been differences of opinion between the two sides as to the length of time allocated to the Tenet cease-fire plan, before the resumption of the diplomatic process, Israel Radio reported Thursday.
The sources said that there had also been disagreement over the arrest of Palestinian activists wanted by Israel. Israel demanded the arrests of those involved in past attacks, but the Palestinians said that they would only arrest those who plan to carry out attacks in the future.
Despite the difficulties, both sides expressed optimism. "This is the continuation of tough bargaining," Israel’s Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh said Thursday. "It is not simple, but it has more of a chance now than a short time ago."
The PA head of Preventive Security in the West Bank, Jibril Rajoub, said the gaps were "huge," but that both sides were working hard to bridge them.
Rajoub added that US Vice President Dick Cheney would meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat early this coming week in Cairo. The two are likely to meet sometime before Monday, he said.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Israel Radio on Thursday there was no agreement on a cease-fire because the Israelis had tried to separate the security issues from the rest of the conditions laid out in the Tenet cease-fire plan.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops operated in Palestinian-ruled Area A in the northern West Bank in the early hours of Thursday morning and arrested over 20 Palestinians.
The troops, who left the area after the operation, focused their activity in Tubas village.
Israeli troops also arrested a Hamas activist in the village of Tamoun, and carried out raids in the villages of El Yamoun and Silat a Hartiya near Jenin. Palestinian sources said about 20 people were arrested in the operation, including a member of Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat's Force 17 presidential guard.
According to Haaretz, an Israeli army’s spokesman added that troops also arrested five activists in the villages of Fawar, south of Hebron, and Mazrat a Sharkiyeh, near Ramallah.
In the village of Yamun, troops arrested five brothers because they could not find the sixth, who is on Israel's wanted list, Palestinian officials said.
In another incident, Palestinians in a passing car opened fire at Israeli police officers escorting National Insurance Institute employees in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Jebel Mukaber Thursday afternoon. There were no injuries in this attack.
In related news, twenty-seven Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks in Jerusalem since the beginning of the year, almost equal to the number who died during all of last year, according to statistics released by the Israeli police. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
