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Palestinian police officer Zohair Abu Fateh (AP)
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| By Associated Press March 20, 2005 |
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| The head of Palestinian security forces in the West Bank town of Tulkarem Said Abu Pasha, left, speaks to reporters as he and Palestinian police officer Fateh, right, arrive at the District Coordination Office in the West Bank town of Tulkarem for a meeting with Israeli officials Sunday, March 20, 2005. (AP) |
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Israeli and Palestinian commanders met Sunday evening to work out the last details of a handover of the West Bank town of Tulkarm to Palestinian control, but the session ended without agreement, a new hitch for fledgling peace efforts between the two sides.
Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the handover was to take place on Monday, making it the second of five West Bank towns to be transferred to Palestinian control. Palestinian officials said the two sides would reconvene Monday for further talks.
The handovers were part of a truce announced at a summit last month in Egypt by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and reinforced last week at a meeting of Palestinian factions in Cairo.
Violence has dropped considerably in the last five weeks, but two incidents on Sunday underlined the fragility of the situation.
Palestinians opened fire on Israeli police and soldiers searching for stolen cars in the Amari refugee camp next to the West Bank city of Ramallah, the military said, wounding two, one critically.
Several hours later, a Palestinian man was shot and critically wounded by an Israeli border policeman in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Border Police spokesman Oren Goanias said the Palestinian tried to steal a weapon from a border policeman.
The violence threatened to upset last week's truce declaration by Palestinian militants. The militants pledged to halt attacks on Israel for the rest of the year, in an important boost for Abbas as he tries to resume peace talks.
But Hamas and Islamic Jihad conditioned their support on Israel's stopping all military operations against the Palestinians. Israel has promised to honor the truce if quiet continues.
Despite the incidents, talks about the handover of Tulkarm proceeded. Last week Israel turned over the isolated desert oasis of Jericho to the Palestinians, the first of five towns to revert to Palestinian control under the Feb. 8 summit understandings.
"We handed Jericho over last week and tomorrow it is expected that Tulkarm will be transferred to Palestinian responsibility," Mofaz told reporters during a stop at an army base. He said plans were underway to transfer a third town, Qalqiliya.
However, Palestinian officials said, the Sunday talks failed to produce an agreement. As with Jericho, the main issues concerned control over surrounding territory and removal of Israeli roadblocks.
Tulkarm is on the line between the West Bank and Israel opposite Israel's narrowest section -- just 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Israel's coast on the Mediterranean Sea. Before Israel erected a section of its contentious separation barrier around three sides of the town, several suicide bombers infiltrated into the nearby Israeli city of Netanya and blew themselves up, killing dozens.
On Feb. 25 a suicide bomber from the Tulkarm area exploded in Tel Aviv, killing five Israelis, in the most serious breach of the truce, but there is no evidence that he crossed a finished section of the barrier, which is only one-third complete.
Palestinians want control of all seven roads leading into Tulkarm, a regional market hub, officials said before the Sunday security meeting. However, the Israel was balking about two of the roads, officials on both sides said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Israeli officials said the two roads lead to towns where those involved in the Tel Aviv bombing came from.
Similar disputes held up the Jericho handover for several days.
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