Palestinians to Deploy Officers Along Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli officials on Thursday accepted a Palestinian plan to deploy hundreds of police officers to ensure quiet along the Gaza-Israel frontier, in the first act of security cooperation with Israel under Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli and Palestinian security officials said negotiations over the deployment were continuing, but the operation was expected to begin on Friday.

While the two sides appeared to be making progress, violence persisted. Two 13-year-old Palestinian boys were killed in separate clashes with Israeli troops in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian officials said.

Palestinian generals presented the Gaza deployment plan during a meeting with their Israeli counterparts late Wednesday, convened in a last-ditch effort to avert a threatened Israeli military offensive in Gaza. Israel has demanded the Palestinians take action to stop repeated rocket and mortar fire at Israeli targets.

Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon are succeeding to defuse their first crisis, though the situation remains highly volatile.

Abbas has been holding talks with leaders of militant groups in Gaza since Tuesday, and his aides said he was edging closer to a truce deal with them. The militants say they are ready to halt attacks, provided Israel stops military operations – a promise Israel has refused to make.

In Wednesday’s security meeting, Palestinian generals presented a detailed plan for stopping rocket fire and infiltrations of Palestinian militants into Israel.

“We told them (Israeli generals) that we are arranging a plan to deploy the Palestinian security forces into both the northern and southern parts of Gaza,” Maj. Gen. Moussa Arafat, a Palestinian security chief, told The Associated Press. “In the first stage, it will be in the north, and then we will move into the south.”

Israeli security officials said roughly 1,000 Palestinian officers would be deployed on Friday. “We are facilitating it and coordinating it (the plan), so it will go forward,” one official said on condition of anonymity. “We are waiting to see how effective they will be.” They said Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz approved the arrangement.

Palestinian security commanders were meeting Thursday afternoon to finalize preparations.

Israeli officials said one of the final sticking points was guaranteeing the safety of the Palestinian officers, fearing they might be targeted by Israeli troops. The officials said they expected a quick resolution. A senior commander in Gaza said any necessary adjustments could be done “in a matter of hours.”

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said that Abbas has been working hard to persuade militants to halt their attacks, but called for Israel’s help as well. “A cease-fire by the Palestinians requires a cease-fire by the Israelis,” he told a news conference.

Abbas had requested Wednesday’s security meeting as the Israeli Security Cabinet was weighing a military solution to the ongoing rocket and mortar attacks.

Israel broke off contacts with Abbas’ government last Friday, after an attack killed six Israeli civilians at a Gaza-Israel crossing point. A Palestinian suicide bombing that killed an Israeli security agent at a Gaza checkpoint on Tuesday escalated tensions.

Arafat, the Palestinian security commander, said Israel had agreed to reopen some blocked roads in Gaza in exchange for the Palestinian deployment.

The army reopened the Gaza checkpoint targeted in Tuesday’s suicide bombing to Palestinian traffic. Israeli military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border would be opened to incoming traffic on Friday. The crossing has been closed since a Dec. 12 attack on an Israeli military post killed five soldiers.

Despite the diplomatic progress, sporadic violence persisted.

Israeli troops shot and killed a 13-year-old boy who fired a homemade rifle at them near the West Bank village of Tubas, Palestinian witnesses said. The army said a large crowd of people gathered, and they were beginning to riot when troops spotted what appeared to be a gunman in the crowd and opened fire.

Also, troops shot and killed a 13-year-old boy in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, hospital officials said. The military said soldiers fired at two suspicious Palestinians crawling in a no-go zone.