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Israel, Palestinians Make Some Progress in Security Talks
Senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials ended their talks in Tel Aviv's Sheraton Hotel Friday afternoon, with some progress reportedly being made, Israeli security sources revealed.
The meeting, the first session of the Israeli-Palestinian joint security committee in two months, was aimed at discussing measures to implement the ceasefire agreement reached by Israeli Foreign minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza on Wednesday.
During the meeting, the two sides discuss Israel's actions to ease closure on the Palestinian towns and villages and try to ease economic sufferings for the Palestinians, the sources said.
In response, the Palestinians would take actions to arrest " leading terrorist activists" and close arms factories. But a senior Palestinian security source present at the meeting said that despite media reports, Israel did not submit a wanted list to the Palestinian side.
The Israeli side also committed itself to beginning a number of confidence-building measures starting from Saturday, including the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and roads linking Palestinian towns.
Peres and Arafat will likely meet again next week if all those measures proceed well. A third meeting between the two leaders is also expected in the future.
In Friday's security talks, the Israeli side was represented by Israeli General Security Service (Shin Bet) chief Avi Dichter, the Israel Defense Forces' Planning Department head Giora Eiland and the Israeli army's Central Commander Yitzhak Eitan and Southern Commander Doron Almog.
The Palestinian side was represented by Palestinian Preventive Security Service's West Bank chief Jibril Rajoub, Palestinian General Security Service head Amin al-Hindi, and other officials. However, Palestinian Preventive Security Service's Gazan chief Mohammed Dahlan was notably absent from the meeting.
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's officials also participated in the meeting, playing the role of arbitrators.
Despite the Security meeting, Friday's security situation on the ground featured the mass demonstrations by the Palestinians throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip to mark the first anniversary of the intifada, or uprising against Israel.
Three Palestinians were killed in Friday's violence, and several dozens of others were injured, including eight Israelis.
In the past year, nearly 800 people have been killed in the violence, most of them Palestinians.
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