Israel and the Palestinians appeared close to a new deal Wednesday night that would remove most of the Palestinians from the Church of the Nativity, but keep 13 activists inside until a country could be found to take them, a Palestinian police officer inside the church said.
According to AP, diplomatic sources confirmed the details of the deal, but said it had not been finalized yet.
Israel’s public television reported Wednesday evening that Spain was willing to accept some of the 13 wanted men.
Israeli officials and Palestinians met Wednesday night to discuss the new deal. Five men, a lawyer, two Franciscan priests and two Greek Orthodox monks, emerged from the church to attend the meeting.
Under the terms of the new deal, 26 Palestinian activists would be sent to Gaza as previously agreed and most of the rest of the 123 Palestinians holed up in the church would be freed. The transfer to Gaza would take place under U.S. aegis, the diplomatic sources said.
The 13 fighters would remain in the church until a country could be found to take them, the Palestinian police officer said on condition of anonymity.
A senior Jordanian official said earlier Wednesday that his country would not be willing to take in the gunmen. "Organizations dealing with the matter approached Jordan on the possibility of taking in the 13 Palestinians, however, we apologized and said that this was impossible," the official said.
"Jordan's position is firm and clear... Jordan rejects the principle of the deportation and the displacement of the Palestinian citizens to Jordan, even temporarily," the official added, according to the state's Petra news agency, saying that such a step would create a precedent.
Despite a Palestinian suicide attack near Tel Aviv on Tuesday night, both sides remained committed to finding a solution to the standoff, Joel Lion, spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, said Wednesday afternoon.
One of the top wanted men inside the church, Abdullah Daoud, said he and the 12 others had reluctantly agreed to exile in Italy and were annoyed by the delay. "We are in very, very bad situation in the church, and we welcome any kind of solution except one — to be handed over to the Israelis," he said.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat approved the deal, Palestinians said, but the decision to send the men into exile is an extremely sensitive one and many Palestinians oppose it. A leader of Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank, Hussein al-Sheikh, said approving exile set a dangerous precedent.
Also, the leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, called one of his followers inside the church, Aziz Abayat, and pressured him not to accept the deal. "Sheikh Yassin told us that ... anyone who accepts exile does not represent the movement's position," Abayat said.
Raising another possible hitch, an Israeli group appealed to the Supreme Court to block the deportations, claiming that a law-abiding nation could not set wanted militants free.
Elsewhere, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem Israeli forces arrested the local leader of Hamas.
The Israeli army said Wednesday it had arrested Abbas al-Sayed, 36, whom it identified as Tulkarem's chief of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. They also nabbed his deputy Mohammed Mansour.
Palestinian officials, however, said Sayed headed the political arm of Hamas in Tulkarem, and not its armed wing.
Palestinian sources said Wednesday afternoon that Israeli helicopters attacked targets in the northern neighborhood of Tulkarem refugee camp. They said a number of buildings were damaged, but no injuries were reported. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
