Abbas-Olmert meet next week
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
PALESTINIAN President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday he would meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert next week, keeping alive a United States-backed dialogue despite Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air raids in Gaza.
At a news conference with the president of the European parliament yesterday, Abbas proposed a new truce between militants and Israel, and said he would see Olmert on June 7.
A spokeswoman for Olmert said a meeting was planned for next week but no specific date or location had been set.
Abbas, head of the Fatah faction that formed a unity government with Hamas two months ago, last met the Israeli leader on April 15 as part of a US-brokered talks that were supposed to take place every two weeks.
The dialogue, which has focused on aspects of a future Palestinian state, has been delayed by Palestinian internal violence, Israeli-Palestinian fighting and Olmert's uncertain political future following an inquiry critical of his handling of last year's costly Lebanon war.
Hamas and other militant groups have fired more than 250 rockets from Gaza, killing two Israelis, over the past two weeks.
Israel has hit back mainly with air strikes, in which more than 40 Palestinians, most of them fighters, have been killed.
Abbas has been trying to broker a ceasefire between the militants and Israel.
At the news conference with European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering, Abbas proposed a truce that would initially cover Gaza and be extended within a month to the occupied West Bank.
Hamas has said any ceasefire must include an end to Israeli raids to arrest militants in the West Bank. Israel has called such raids critical to foiling Palestinian attacks.
In fresh violence, Israeli soldiers crossed into the Gaza Strip and killed two Hamas militants near the border, drawing a vow from the armed wing of the Islamist group to hit back.
Several militants were detained by the force for questioning, an Israeli army spokesman said.
It was the second such ground operation in Gaza in the past week. The Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades said it believed the Israeli force had planned to seize one of its members from his home when it encountered the gunmen.
The spike in rocket strikes against Israel has been accompanied by a dramatic decrease in Hamas-Fatah fighting, in which more than 50 Palestinians have died.
But in a development likely to stoke tensions between the two groups, Palestinian security forces loyal to Abbas said they discovered a tunnel near the main security complex in Gaza City.
One security official said an investigation has been launched to determine who dug the tunnel. Fatah has accused gunmen from Hamas of tunnelling near homes of Fatah leaders in a bid to target them. Hamas has denied such allegations.
Late last Monday, Israeli soldiers arrested Jamal Tirawi, a Fatah legislator and a leader of the militant al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, in an operation near the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian officials said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that Tirawi was taken into custody along with six other wanted militants.
"He was responsible for a terrorist attack in a Tel Aviv cafe in 2002 in which one woman was killed and 29 people were wounded," the spokeswoman said.
Reuters
At a news conference with the president of the European parliament yesterday, Abbas proposed a new truce between militants and Israel, and said he would see Olmert on June 7.
A spokeswoman for Olmert said a meeting was planned for next week but no specific date or location had been set.
Abbas, head of the Fatah faction that formed a unity government with Hamas two months ago, last met the Israeli leader on April 15 as part of a US-brokered talks that were supposed to take place every two weeks.
The dialogue, which has focused on aspects of a future Palestinian state, has been delayed by Palestinian internal violence, Israeli-Palestinian fighting and Olmert's uncertain political future following an inquiry critical of his handling of last year's costly Lebanon war.
Hamas and other militant groups have fired more than 250 rockets from Gaza, killing two Israelis, over the past two weeks.
Israel has hit back mainly with air strikes, in which more than 40 Palestinians, most of them fighters, have been killed.
Abbas has been trying to broker a ceasefire between the militants and Israel.
At the news conference with European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering, Abbas proposed a truce that would initially cover Gaza and be extended within a month to the occupied West Bank.
Hamas has said any ceasefire must include an end to Israeli raids to arrest militants in the West Bank. Israel has called such raids critical to foiling Palestinian attacks.
In fresh violence, Israeli soldiers crossed into the Gaza Strip and killed two Hamas militants near the border, drawing a vow from the armed wing of the Islamist group to hit back.
Several militants were detained by the force for questioning, an Israeli army spokesman said.
It was the second such ground operation in Gaza in the past week. The Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades said it believed the Israeli force had planned to seize one of its members from his home when it encountered the gunmen.
The spike in rocket strikes against Israel has been accompanied by a dramatic decrease in Hamas-Fatah fighting, in which more than 50 Palestinians have died.
But in a development likely to stoke tensions between the two groups, Palestinian security forces loyal to Abbas said they discovered a tunnel near the main security complex in Gaza City.
One security official said an investigation has been launched to determine who dug the tunnel. Fatah has accused gunmen from Hamas of tunnelling near homes of Fatah leaders in a bid to target them. Hamas has denied such allegations.
Late last Monday, Israeli soldiers arrested Jamal Tirawi, a Fatah legislator and a leader of the militant al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, in an operation near the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian officials said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that Tirawi was taken into custody along with six other wanted militants.
"He was responsible for a terrorist attack in a Tel Aviv cafe in 2002 in which one woman was killed and 29 people were wounded," the spokeswoman said.
Reuters
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