Talks Stall as Israelis Leave for Holocaust Observance : Mideast: Chances dim for accord with PLO before next week’s target date for pullout of troops.

A potential new crisis in Palestinian peace negotiations loomed Wednesday as the Israeli delegation left Egypt without reaching an accord on deployment of Palestinian police, and negotiators said they were less hopeful that a final agreement can be reached by April 13.

An obviously shaken Nabil Shaath, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said he tried to persuade the Israelis to stay and continue the talks but that they refused and left on a scheduled trip home to observe the annual Holocaust day of remembrance.

The decision to leave came almost immediately after Shaath brought the Israelis a report from Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, who arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to consult on the talks.

The abrupt departure was an apparent indication that no agreement was immediately at hand on dispatching an early contingent of Palestinian police to the Gaza Strip, a move originally foreseen for this week. It raised questions about whether Israeli and Palestinian negotiators can reach agreement on autonomy in Gaza and in Jericho in the West Bank before next week’s target date for Israeli withdrawal from the two regions.

In the Gaza Strip, a ceremony scheduled to hand over the keys of the first Israeli police station was abruptly canceled when the Palestinians, on apparent instructions from the PLO, said they would not attend.

“We received orders today not to take over the station. . . . The transfer will be postponed perhaps for a few days because of the snags in Cairo,” Rashid abu Shbak, a Palestinian deportee who returned from exile this week to act as a liaison with the Israelis, told reporters.

The Israeli delegation had been scheduled to leave Wednesday to commemorate Holocaust Day in Israel today, with talks scheduled to resume Sunday. But their early departure, in the afternoon, along with their refusal to consider Shaath’s requests to continue, indicated slow going in the talks, particularly on the issue of early deployment of Palestinian police.

Shaath said the major stumbling block was the Israelis’ failure to commit to a date for signing a final agreement and beginning the Israeli withdrawal.

Shaath said the Israelis left without wrapping up negotiations to meet the April 13 target. “It’s a matter that causes great difficulties, and we will not take responsibility for it. The Israelis will take full responsibility for it,” he declared.

A disappointed Shaath said negotiations could have continued, despite the Israeli holiday, and would have been more likely to produce results. The Israelis have pledged to continue the exchanges by telephone and fax over the weekend.

“I do very much appreciate the need for mourning and remembrance of the Holocaust; it is something that we share the indignation for,” Shaath said. “But we have done this before many times. Every time, the day of the intifada (the Palestinian uprising), or the day of Sabra and Chatilla (commemorating the massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon in 1982), or other days, we used to abstain for an hour of mourning and remembrance, we used to pray for those who have died, but then we used to continue.”

Through almost four days of negotiations this week--after the signing last week of an agreement to send an international observer force to Hebron to protect Palestinians there--the two sides sought to agree on deployment of Palestinian police in Gaza and Jericho, the two regions that are to have interim Palestinian self-rule under an overall accord signed by Israel and the PLO last September.

Although there were initial plans to send a vanguard of about 300 Palestinian police to Gaza as early as this week, and up to 1,500 police a week later, the talks bogged down in disputes--over how many police would be allowed in the early stages, how much authority they would have, how they would be armed.

The Israelis resisted anything more than about 1,000 Palestinian officers before a full agreement is signed, under which perhaps 9,000 Palestinian police will be deployed in the two regions. Palestinian police commanders insisted on commitments on a date for Israeli withdrawal and not just a timetable for how long the pullout would take.

“They are not serious about reaching an agreement on specific dates such as April 13,” complained Gen. Nasr Youssef, who will command the Palestinian force. “They have suggested a timetable for withdrawal within three weeks, but they have not specified a date for the start of the operation. . . . They are procrastinating and drawing things out.”

The timing is critical for Palestinian commanders, who do not want to enter the territories while there is still a large Israeli military presence. Palestinians hope to arrive with a show of authority that will assure the population that they are in control.