Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said preparations for a new Palestinian security apparatus should commence this month.
Even so, Sharon, in a radio interview aired Saturday, said the Palestinians have failed to keep their part of a tentative truce agreement. He also repeated demands for a total cessation of violence and an overhaul of the Palestinian Authority before the peace process can be revived.
Speaking to Israeli Army Radio, Sharon said the rehabilitation of the Palestinian security forces was imminent. "Training and preparation of a new security apparatus will, I estimate, begin during the course of this month," he said. "That's a beginning."
Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yehiyeh told The Associated Press late Saturday that there's not going to be a new security apparatus but rather a "refresher" course for the already existing security forces.
"It will be training for a group of officers and members in the already existing security apparatuses ... since they were not able to get any security or military training over the last two years," he said.
Sharon added the security forces under Arafat had degenerated into "terror" organizations. For the peace process to resume, "there must be genuine reform, not what Arafat is talking about at the moment," Sharon said. "Those are games. There's nothing real there."
Sharon said a tentative deal reached last month calling for Israeli pullbacks in exchange for Palestinian assurances against "terror" was going nowhere. The army has already pulled out of the West Bank town of Bethlehem as part of the deal, and was supposed to have done the same in parts of the Gaza Strip.
Sharon said Gaza Strip is the place where Palestinians are best equipped to keep order but have failed to do so.
Yehiyeh, however, said Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres would hold talks with top Palestinian officials on Tuesday to review implementation of the so-called "Gaza-Bethlehem first" agreement.
On the ground, Israeli armored combat vehicles fired at a crowd of stone-throwing Palestinian boys in the West Bank on Saturday and wounded four of them, one seriously, Palestinian witnesses and medics said.
Israeli military sources said troops fired at Palestinian gunmen after being shot at. They said Palestinians told the district liaison office that four youths aged 15 to 18 were injured.
Two Palestinian boys aged 13 and 14 were wounded in the West Bank city of Tulkarem when tanks fired in the direction of people violating a curfew, hospital officials said, according to Reuters. Israeli military sources said troops fired only "non-lethal" rubber bullets after coming under a hail of petrol bombs and rocks from "rioters."
Also on Saturday, in the West Bank city of Hebron, Israeli soldiers arrested leading Hamas member, Hisham Sharabaty. Palestinians said Sharabaty, long wanted by Israel, had been living at large for years and was arrested at his home during a rare visit. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
