Palestinian Negotiators Condemn Murder of 2 IsraelisAhmed Qurei, Palestine Council speaker and head of Palestinian negotiating team, Tuesday night condemned the killings of two Israeli civilians in the West Bank.Qurei said that the Palestinian negotiators "condemn the killing of civilians, whether they are Israelis or Palestinians, or whether they are committed by one side or the other," the state-run Middle East News Agency reported. The two Israeli civilians were shot dead earlier in the day near Tulkarem in northern West Bank. The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas, Izz el-Din Al-Qassam, has claimed responsibility for the killings. Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak has recalled the Israeli negotiators from Taba for consultation and suspended contacts with the Palestinians. Qurei said that "right now the negotiations are suspended. Tomorrow morning, we will make decision on" whether or not to continue the talks. Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israeli foreign minister and chief negotiator, and Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, minister of tourism and negotiator, have not returned to Taba after going back to Israel to update Barak on the developments of the talks earlier in the day. The rest of the Israeli delegation left for Israel's Eilat where they have been staying during the talks, the news agency reported. The Taba talks, scheduled to last for 10 days without stop until Israel's February 6 prime ministerial election, were proposed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last Wednesday. Israel's peace cabinet on Saturday agreed to the planned marathon talks as Barak was seeking a peace deal to boost his chances of being re-elected in the coming election. The two sides tried to strike a draft accord based on former U. S. President Bill Clinton's peace proposals for a final settlement, which would give Palestinians sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods and the Al Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem, but deny the Palestinian refugees' right of return. |
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