Israel Withdraws From Northern Gaza

Israeli troops withdrew from part of the Gaza Strip after the leading Palestinian groups declared a limited cease-fire, boosting chances for a U.S.-backed peace plan plagued up to now by unrelenting violence.

Early Monday, Palestinian security forces took control of the northern Gaza Strip.

On Sunday, the militant Islamic Jihad and Hamas groups called a three-month cease-fire, and the mainstream Fatah followed with a six-month truce declaration. The cease-fire declarations apply to settlers and soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza as well as to Israel, a key Israeli demand.

However, Israeli officials were skeptical of the prospects for a breakthrough toward settling the conflict that has bloodied and battered both sides for nearly three years.

Israel was not a party to the truce and refused to guarantee that it would stop military operations against Palestinian militants, while demanding that the groups declaring the truce be dismantled and disarmed.

The Palestinian statements, meanwhile, were couched in terms that clearly laid the blame for the violence on Israel, demanding that Israel stop attacks, lift roadblocks and release prisoners.

The United States offered qualified support.

“Anything that reduces violence is a step in the right direction,” White House spokeswoman Ashley Snee said. “Under the road map, parties have an obligation to dismantle terrorist infrastructure. There is still more work to be done.”

Sunday’s rapid-fire developments came as U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem, a day after meeting with his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas.

Rice is talking to both sides about further steps in implementing the road map, launched by President Bush at a June 4 summit.

The first test of the truce may well be Beit Hanoun, a town in the northeast corner of Gaza. Israeli troops have moved in and out so many times that their invasions have become routine. They are trying to stop Palestinian militants from firing homemade rockets over the fence at the Israeli town of Sderot, less than a mile away.

Carrying out a security agreement brokered by senior U.S. envoy John Wolf, Israeli forces withdrew from Beit Hanoun after sundown Sunday. On Monday, Palestinian security forces replaced the Israelis, Palestinian security sources said, establishing three checkpoints inside Beit Hanoun and controlling the entrance and exit to the town.

As the last Israeli tanks pulled out, two young boys emerged from a house and planted a Palestinian flag in the sand.

“I hope that this will be the last time we see them as invaders,” said Rafet Jamal, 45, whose farm was bulldozed by Israeli troops. “It’s time to rebuild our nation, our society, and replant the roots of peace.”

Under the security arrangement, Palestinian police are responsible for security in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Bethlehem. To Israel, that means preventing attacks.

All violence by both sides must end at the outset of the first phase of the three-stage, three-year plan, which leads to a Palestinian state in 2005.

Israel also is to halt settlement construction in the West Bank and Gaza.

Fatah, the movement of Abbas and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, had hoped to put off the declaration for another day or two, to protest being bypassed in negotiations. But later Sunday, Fatah declared its own six-month cease-fire.

Besides the length of the truce, the Fatah announcement differed in other key places from the statement of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Where the Islamists called for “end of the Zionist occupation of our land,” a reference to Israel as well as the West Bank and Gaza, Fatah called for establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and Arab Jerusalem.

Also, Fatah called for implementation of the “road map,” pointedly ignored by the Islamic groups, which reject peacemaking with Israel.

Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Nabil Shaath called on Israel to halt targeted killings, freeze Jewish settlement activity in Palestinian territories and complete a full withdrawal from occupied Palestinian areas within six weeks.

“Things are promising and we must seize this moment,” he said.

But Israeli officials warned that the truce could be used by militants to regroup for more attacks against Israel, unless the Palestinian Authority uses the time to dismantle militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as required by the road map.

Palestinian support for the deal was not unanimous, The Popular Front, a radical PLO group, said it would not sign but would also not sabotage the deal. The Fatah declaration also applied to its violent wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, but offshoot cells indicated they would continue targeting Israelis.

Hours after the cease-fire declaration, Palestinians opened fire at a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, slightly wounding a soldier.

The Israelis kept up their military activity, as well. Palestinians said 10 Israeli tanks and jeeps entered the northern West Bank village of Yamoun and searched for suspects, wounding one.

Amir Doron, a 58-year-old Tel Aviv lawyer, said both sides must try to make the peace plan work.

“You have to give a chance to every step that will end terrorism and bring about peace,” he said. “Even if it doesn’t succeed, we will be where we are now, so we have nothing to lose.”