Israeli, Palestinian Ministers Agree on Phased Withdrawal Plan

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, August 19, 2002

Israeli, Palestinian Ministers Agree on Phased Withdrawal Plan

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A meeting between Israeli DefenseMinister Binyamin Ben Eliezer and Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razeq Al Yehya on Sunday evening ended about one hour before midnight with an agreement to implement a phased Israeli withdrawal plan, according to a sources from the Israeli Defense Ministry.

The source said that under the terms of the newly updated "Gaza First" plan, Israeli troops will gradually pull back from territories under total Palestinian control, beginning with the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Monday.

The "Gaza First" plan, brought out by Ben Eliezer in order to end the almost two years of bloodshed between Israel and the Palestinians, was the focus of the fresh security meeting between senior Israeli and Palestinian officials at the ministerial level.

The Sunday evening's talks, which lasted more than four hours inTel Aviv, were the first since August 7, when top security officials on both sides failed to agree on Ben Eliezer's "Gaza First" plan to withdraw Israeli troops from Gaza first before expanding it to the West Bank.

During the meeting, Ben Eliezer updated his gradual withdrawal plan by extending the areas Israeli troops are to pull out to West Bank city of Bethlehem.

"The talks are aimed at getting a ceasefire and reducing tension," Ben Eliezer told reporters prior to the meeting in the day.

An Israeli security source said earlier on Saturday that "if we see that they (the Palestinians) are serious, we will broaden the plan to Bethlehem and even Hebron."

Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli prime minister's bureau announced that the talks between Ben Eliezer and the Palestinian security officials will be carried out with the full knowledge of and in coordination with Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

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