Israel Decries Palestinian Security
An agreement calling for Israeli troops to withdraw gradually from Palestinian towns in exchange for security assurances cannot proceed unless the Palestinians do more to stop attacks, Israeli officials said Sunday.

Palestinians accused the Israelis of stalling, insisting Israel has little intention of easing restrictions that have confined hundreds of thousands of West Bank residents to their homes for much of the past two months.

Under the first security accord between the sides in more than a year, Israeli troops transferred control of the West Bank town of Bethlehem to the Palestinians last week and were slated to do the same in parts of the Gaza Strip.

If Bethlehem and the Gaza Strip remained quiet, Israel said it would consider withdrawing from other West Bank towns and cities taken over in June following Palestinian attacks.

While there were no reports of violence in Bethlehem over the weekend, the army said it foiled a Palestinian attack on a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip and that troops in the area came under repeated fire from automatic weapons, grenades and anti-tank missiles. There were no Israeli casualties but troops killed the two alleged Gaza raiders and shot dead a militant during a gunfight in the West Bank town of Jenin.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said further withdrawals envisioned under the accord would not be possible unless Palestinian security forces take measures to head off suicide bombings and other attacks against Israelis.

Another Cabinet minister, Danny Naveh, went even further, saying the security agreement reached last week was ``frozen.''

``They (the Palestinians) haven't done anything serious ... concerning terror and violence,'' Naveh told Israel Radio.

Ben-Eliezer denied the agreement was frozen. Security meetings to discuss implementing the agreement will occur this week, the ministry said.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat accused the Israelis of trying to maintain the ``status quo, to keep the reoccupation, to keep the siege.''

Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yehiyeh published a statement Sunday detailing his negotiations over recent weeks trying to get militant groups to abandon violence. During a meeting last week, Yehiyeh stressed the importance of the security agreement in removing Israeli troops from Palestinian towns, he said.

However, militants at the meeting repeated their rejections of the plan. Islamic groups in particular vow to continue their resistance until all Israeli occupation has ended.

Meanwhile, Israeli radio aired an interview with an unidentified Israeli soldier who reported looting and assaults of Palestinian civilians by troops in the West Bank town of Jenin during a military incursion there in March and April.

``Soldiers took money, jewelry, electrical appliances, abused people,'' he said. ``They beat them even when it wasn't necessary, when nobody was resisting.''

An army spokeswoman said military police were investigating 35 such cases, involving an unspecified number of soldiers.

In Jenin, gunmen from the Al Aqsa Brigades, which is affiliated with Yasser Arafat's Fatah party, detonated explosives early Sunday at the office of local Palestinian Gov. Haider Irshaid. Walls and furniture at the offices were damaged seriously, Irshaid said.

The attack followed a heated telephone argument in which the gunmen demanded Irshaid stop conveying Israeli army instructions about the town's curfew. Irshaid publicizes nightly on local television plans by the army to impose or lift the curfew the next day.

The authority of local Palestinian officials has eroded gradually since the latest uprising -- or intefadeh -- began two years ago in the wake of failed peace talks.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Palestinians.html