Truce Hinted by Palestinian Underground

Underground leaders of a Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip have floated the idea of declaring a conditional truce, Palestinian and Israeli sources said today.

In exchange, Israel would be expected to release about 1,500 Palestinian activists imprisoned without trial and allow free municipal elections in the occupied territories.

At least 348 Palestinians and 14 Israelis have been killed during the year-old uprising, including two more Arab teen-agers today.

The sources said West Bank Palestinian leaders raised the truce idea in talks with foreign diplomats and in indirect contacts with the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, which runs public services in the occupation zone.

“They have been putting out feelers on the conditions for calling some sort of a truce. It’s very fragile and tentative,” a Palestinian source familiar with the contacts said.

“The Israelis would have to start fulfilling some of the 14 demands of the intifada (uprising) listed in the leaflets of the Unified Leadership of the Uprising,” he said.

The demands include releasing prisoners, closing detention camps, canceling deportations, withdrawing Israeli troops from population centers in the territories, reopening Palestinian universities and allowing municipal elections.

The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz said Palestinian leaders from the West Bank have discussed the idea of a cease-fire with U.S. diplomats who are exploring the possibility of reversing some of the 35 deportations ordered by Israel this year.

It was unclear to what extent the idea had the backing of the Palestine Liberation Organization, without which there is little chance of achieving a ceasefire.

Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij publicly raised the idea of a one-year U.N.-brokered truce between Israel and the PLO last week.