Palestinian factions fuel cease-fire optimism

GAZA CITY: Palestinian Islamist groups said Monday they had narrowed their differences with leader Mahmoud Abbas over his calls for a cease-fire but insisted Israel must reciprocate.

In the West Bank, Israeli bulldozers resumed construction of a section of the vast separation barrier deep inside Palestinian territory.

Senior Israeli officials meanwhile were divided over how to respond to Abbas' efforts to restore calm after four and a half years of violence, with the hawkish Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the government should not be obliged to reciprocate.

Abbas, who has been in Gaza since Jan. 18 in a bid to persuade factions such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad to lay down their weapons, expressed confidence in a television interview Sunday that an agreement could be reached soon.

Both groups echoed his optimism on Monday and a key mediator in their talks said that an unofficial "cooling down" period was already in place.

"We have reached, in principal, agreement on important issues and the differences are very narrow," Moushir al-Masri, a spokesman for Hamas, said.

"Everyone on the Palestinian side is determined to have a collective position," he added.

Abbas, elected president of the Palestinian Authority on Jan. 9, is understood to be trying to tempt the factions into a change of strategy by dangling the carrot of participation in the political process.

While both Hamas and Jihad boycotted the presidential contest they have agreed to take part in July's legislative elections and in municipal polls which are due to take place in Gaza later this week.

Masri said the discussions focused on political participation, including the idea of Hamas becoming part of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

"Several issues were discussed, including the internal situation, corruption and political participation inside the PLO and the Palestinian Authority," he added without giving further details.

Nafaz Azzam, part of the Islamic Jihad delegation, said there had been agreement on many core issues, while remaining differences could be ironed out at a later date.

Both factions were unequivocal however in their insistence that Israel must not sit on its hands.

"Of course there can be no talk of a cease-fire without a price being paid by Israel," Masri said.

Ziad Abu Amr, a former Palestinian cabinet minister who is seen as playing an instrumental role in the truce talks, confirmed that the factions had agreed to a period of quiet while awaiting Israel's response.

"The Palestinian parties have agreed to calm the situation and we are waiting to see if Israel is ready to respond to that and then to hold a truce," he told Al-Quds newspaper.

But Netanyahu said he saw no reason for compromise by Israel.

"I don't see why Israel must give something," he told army radio. "They are the side that transgressed ... that tried to use terror to press for the terrible results they sought." Deputy Prime Minister and Labor party leader Shimon Peres however, praised Abbas, telling army radio: "Abu Mazen has made enormous efforts against terrorism but this does not signal that he has total control."

U.S. envoy William Burns, a senior State Department official, is to arrive in the region later this week for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the emerging cease-fire deal. Abbas is also expected in Cairo next week for talks with Egyptian officials on his efforts to reach a cease-fire, Egypt's foreign minister said Monday.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters that the final date for Abbas' visit would be set later this week.

Meanwhile, in the northern West Bank, Israeli bulldozers began working on one of the most controversial sections of the separation barrier deep in Palestinian territory after an eight-month pause when the construction was halted by a court order.

Palestinian security sources in Salfit town, just south of the Jewish settlement of Ariel, said three bulldozers began work in the late morning, clearing land belonging to Salfit and to the neighboring village of Iskaka.

Work on the Ariel section of the vast barrier was halted on June 25 by order of the Israeli supreme court following an appeal lodged a month earlier by the Salfit mayor.

Separately, a Palestinian man who was critically injured when Israeli troops opened fire on his car in the southern West Bank late last month, died Monday, his family said.

Yasser Jabarin, 30, sustained a critical head injury on Dec. 26 when troops fired on his car at a checkpoint at the southernmost tip of the West Bank. His death brought to 4,716 the overall toll since the September 2000 start of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, including 3,661 Palestinians and 981 Israelis, according to an AFP tally.

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