Palestinian Cabinet Backs Pullout Deal

The Palestinian Cabinet gave tentative approval Wednesday to a deal in which the Israelis would withdraw from some occupied areas in exchange for a Palestinian crackdown on militants living there.

But after Palestinian and Israeli security officials met to work out specifics, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat said Israel had imposed new conditions that were “impossible to accept.”

Nabil abu Rudaineh wouldn’t give details but called the session a failure. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli side.

As the deal was debated, the Israelis launched raids in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in their latest effort to arrest or kill operatives who they say are instrumental in the attacks that have left more than 600 Israelis dead in the last two years.

Palestinian reaction to the proposed Israeli withdrawal had been mixed, with some of the leadership contending that the only acceptable deal is a pullout from all Palestinian enclaves.

But Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer was adamant that the first withdrawals be something of a pilot project, in which the Palestinian Authority would be rewarded with more pullouts if it was successful in keeping militant groups such as Hamas under control.

“It’s a good step and a political step as long as it leads to the full withdrawal from Palestinian areas,” said Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath.

Ben-Eliezer told Shaath this week that Israel wants to begin the pullback in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian security apparatus is still largely in place. The Israelis have occupied some parts of Gaza for almost two years and reoccupied seven of eight West Bank cities in June in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent attacks, most of them suicide bombings.

The decision to tentatively accept the Israeli withdrawal plan came as a senior Palestinian delegation left for Washington for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. However, the militant Hamas organization rejected the “Gaza first” proposal, characterizing it as an Israeli public relations ploy. Ismail abu Shenab, a senior Hamas official in Gaza, said the proposal was intended to dampen international criticism of Israel.

Earlier in the day, Israeli troops launched well-orchestrated raids throughout the West Bank and Gaza in which at least five Palestinians were killed and many more were arrested.

In the West Bank town of Tulkarm, Israeli troops backed by helicopter gunships and armored vehicles stormed a building in the early morning, killing four Palestinians, including one wanted for more than a year in connection with the execution-style slayings of two Israeli restaurant owners.

The Israelis surrounded the home of Ziad Mohammed Daas, a local leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia affiliated with Arafat’s Fatah movement. In the ensuing gun battle, Daas was killed by an Israeli sharpshooter after the Palestinian had fled to the roof of his building. An additional 15 Palestinians were arrested.

Israel also launched a daybreak raid in Bethlehem, arresting Yehiyeh Daamseh, an explosives expert who had been the object of an intense Israeli search for months. He is accused of having orchestrated several suicide bombings, including one in Jerusalem last March in which 11 Israelis were killed.

Soon after the Israelis arrested Daamseh, his home was razed by bulldozers. The soldiers carried out the demolition two days after Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that such action was permissible. Palestinian security officials said the Israelis discovered an explosives belt inside the house.

And after a night in which Israeli troops moved closer to Gaza City to conduct house-to-house searches, another Palestinian militant was shot and killed as he stood on the roof of his home. Hussam Hamdan, 27, a member of Hamas, was shot by Israeli snipers in the Gazan town of Khan Yunis.

In northern Israel, an Israeli Arab was indicted in Nazareth on Wednesday and charged with failing to tell authorities that she knew a suicide bomber was on board the bus that was blown up Sunday, killing nine people.

The indictment charges Yassra Bakri, 28, of the Arab village of Beineh with not telling anyone after the suicide bomber warned her to get off the bus. She and a friend got off and the two caught a taxi, which followed the doomed bus for about 20 minutes, the indictment said. The taxi passed the bus when it stopped to pick up passengers at the Meron junction, where the explosion occurred. Israel Radio said the woman had several friends who remained on the bus.

Meanwhile, a tanker truck loaded with almost 4,000 gallons of fuel was blown up by a bomb Wednesday in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Le Zion. The driver was only slightly injured because he had stopped at a gas station to have his brakes checked and was not in the truck.

In Ramallah, the Palestinian city just north of Jerusalem, a firing squad executed a convicted killer and rapist in the courtyard of Yasser Arafat’s compound just as Cabinet members were arriving for their meeting about the Israeli withdrawal offer.

Bashir Atari, 26, who escaped the compound jail when Israeli forces entered the headquarters in June, was brought by car with his hands tied behind his back. He was allowed to speak with a Muslim cleric before being executed.