Each Side to Call Truce in Middle East

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to declare simultaneous cease-fires during today’s summit in Egypt, a breakthrough that could end a bloody, four-year uprising and ease the way for more far-reaching steps toward peace.

An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the two sides would not sign a truce but their actions would have the same effect. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is to announce an end to the uprising that began in September 2000, and Israel will halt its military activities if the Palestinian leadership makes good on its promise to crack down on armed militants, said the Sharon aide, Raanan Gissin.

Israel was also expected to formally announce that it would release 900 Palestinian prisoners and pull its troops from five West Bank cities, handing over security to Palestinian forces.

The agreed-upon gestures -- and the air of cooperation that produced them -- marked the most promising attempts at conciliation since the outbreak of the intifada, which has left more than 4,000 people dead, most of them Palestinians.

Still, memories linger of failed talks two years ago, the last time Sharon held meetings with Abbas, then in a short-lived tenure as Palestinian Authority prime minister. A summit at that time, in Aqaba, Jordan, had similarly raised hopes for a breakthrough, but subsequent talks bogged down over security and some of the same issues being discussed this week.

Gissin said the climate for progress had improved since the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, long viewed by Israel as an obstacle to peace. He said further gains would hinge on the Palestinians’ ability to preserve calm.

“Security is the word here,” he said.

Abbas declined to spell out the cease-fire terms ahead of the summit in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el Sheik. Speaking to reporters after a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, Abbas said the agreement would “open the way for more negotiations to implement the road map.” He was referring to the U.S.-backed diplomatic initiative that called for the two sides to announce an end to fighting as a preliminary step.

Today’s expected declarations would formalize a de facto cease-fire that has resulted in relative calm for two weeks, with Palestinian militants promising to hold their fire and Israel curtailing military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Abbas has persuaded militant groups to cease their attacks while he pursues agreements with the Israelis. But any lasting calm will depend on the militants.

Mahmoud Zahar, the top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, said late Monday that the group wanted to assess the results of the summit before committing to a long-term cease-fire.

“Our position is that the announcement should not be done before coming back to the Palestinian factions and talking with them about what has been achieved [during the summit], so that the picture does not look as if it is a partial or uncompleted agreement,” Zahar said in Gaza City.

Hamas, which has carried out dozens of deadly attacks against Israelis, wants a large-scale release of about 8,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, but the group could also benefit from a break in the fighting. Hamas has been decimated by years of combat and Israeli strikes against its leaders, and is looking to convert its popularity into political clout. The group, which has done well in recent municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, plans to enter candidates in parliamentary elections this summer.

News of the expected cease-fire came hours after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice capped a two-day Middle East visit Monday by offering the Palestinians $40 million in immediate aid and announcing that a U.S. Army general would be named as “security coordinator” to help Israel and the Palestinians manage nascent peace efforts.

After meetings in Ramallah with Palestinian officials, Rice also said Sharon and Abbas had accepted invitations to meet separately with President Bush at the White House. It was not clear when the visits would take place.

Rice pledged a more active U.S. role in trying to bring peace, saying the United States would back efforts to build democratic Palestinian institutions and bring order to a hodgepodge of security forces.

She said the coordinator would assist Palestinian efforts to revamp security forces -- reforms long urged by the United States and others -- and encourage the Palestinians and Israel to cooperate on security matters.

“The idea is to have someone who is responsible for helping the Palestinians on reform of their security forces, for helping with monitoring and not to supplant the activities and the efforts of the parties,” Rice said. “It’s most important that the Israelis and the Palestinians have security cooperation that is bilateral, that is strong, that is robust and that is dealing with most of the problems.”

The job is to be filled by Lt. Gen. William Ward, a veteran Army officer who has commanded peacekeeping forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina and served in South Korea, Egypt, Somalia and Germany.

Rice said Ward would mainly help guide Palestinian reforms while serving as a third-party monitor on security matters. But she said the Bush administration preferred that Israel and the Palestinians worked out problems themselves.

The security role resembles that played by former Gen. Anthony Zinni, sent by Bush in 2001 to help the two sides cooperate on matters such as cracking down on Palestinian militants and easing Israel’s military grip in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But Zinni left after five months, amid continued violence and little progress.

Analysts said that cooperation already emerging between the two sides gave the approach a better chance now.

Rice’s stopover ended a day before Abbas and Sharon are due to meet at the Sharm el Sheik summit. The gathering, held by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and including Jordan’s King Abdullah II, will mark the first meeting between Sharon and Abbas since the Palestinian leader won election by a wide margin in January.

“What’s important for us is that we have started the process, which will continue at the Sharm summit and won’t be the end of anything,” Abbas said after his meeting with Rice.

He added: “Maybe the summit will not solve all the problems and all the issues, but this doesn’t mean that the summit will be a failure.”

Palestinians and Israelis have looked forward to the summit with wary optimism. Citizens on both sides say they are tired of the fighting and eager to return to normality after so much violence.

“We need time. We want to get back to a normal life again,” said Thaer Salman, a 23-year-old Palestinian tending his family’s clothing store in Ramallah. The store was razed during an Israeli raid three years ago.

“It’s very bad since the beginning of the intifada,” he said. “Instead of making progress, we went backward 10 years.”

For Israelis, the summit raises fears of a bombing, and authorities in Jerusalem announced a heightened state of alert. Previous meetings have been derailed by militant attacks and Israeli reprisals.

At a market in Tel Aviv where a bomber killed himself and three other people in November, talk of the summit sparked debate between the owners of neighboring stalls.

Yossi Ajami, a 48-year-old Israeli toy vendor, said the summit was a “waste of time” because Abbas lacked the power to make peace on behalf of the Palestinians.

But his neighbor, Rivka Cohen, said that the Palestinians “want exactly what I do.”

“Enough blood. That’s it, it’s enough,” Cohen said. “Both us and them, we pay too dearly.”

Arafat’s death, Abbas’ victory and the recent lull in violence have fed hopes for a revival of the stalled road map initiative. In addition, Sharon plans to move forward this year with his proposal to withdraw Jewish settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip and a portion of the West Bank and hand those areas to the Palestinians.

Rice, who a day earlier pressed Israeli leaders to make “hard decisions” to develop a democratic Palestinian state and foster reconciliation, called the summit “an extremely important step forward.”

She said the $40 million in aid -- part of a $350-million package Bush seeks -- would be provided within 90 days. It is to be used for creating jobs and improving living conditions for Palestinians.

Palestinian officials said they were pleased at the administration’s commitment to be more deeply engaged. Critics accused Bush of allowing the conflict to worsen by not getting involved in mediation efforts.

“It is a new beginning -- a new beginning for the Palestinian-American relationship on this high level,” said Abbas spokesman Nabil abu Rudaineh. “We hope to build on it.”

Special correspondents Tami Zer in Tel Aviv and Fayed abu Shammalah in Gaza City contributed to this report.