 |
Israeli, Palestinian Security Meeting Postponed
The meeting of the high-level Israeli-Palestinian Committee on Security, scheduled for Monday evening at the Erez Checkpoint between the Gaza Strip and Israel, has been postponed.
The new date and venue for the meeting, aimed at finding ways to reduce the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will be decided by the two sides, Israel Radio quoted a senior Palestinian official as saying on Monday.
A senior Israeli official told the radio earlier Monday that the Palestinians agreed to attend the meeting after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell made separate phone calls to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the weekend.
Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs resumed their security talks last Wednesday evening after a prolonged suspension of the talks between the two sides.
But the meeting was marred by an incident early Thursday morning at the Erez Checkpoint in which the Israeli army fired at the Palestinian official's convey as it was returning to Gaza after the meeting.
During the incident, three Palestinian bodyguards were lightly injured by shrapnel.
Israeli army officials claimed that the soldiers at the checkpoint opened fire on the convey after bodyguards of the Palestinian officials had shot at them.
But the Palestinians categorically denied this account and charged that Israel was trying to assassinate Mohammed Dahlan, the chief of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service in the Gaza Strip.
The incident hindered the resumption of further talks on security issues between the two sides.
Security coordination between the Palestinians and Israelis was cut off after the violence triggered by Israeli violation of an Islamic holy site in East Jerusalem broke out last September. Over 450 people have been killed, most of them Palestinians, and 15,000 others wounded since then.
In This Section
|