Israel OKs Palestinian Deployment in Gaza

Israeli officials Thursday accepted a Palestinian plan to deploy hundreds of police officers to ensure quiet along the Gaza-Israel frontier, in the first act of security cooperation with Israel under new Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli and Palestinian security officials said negotiations over the deployment were continuing, but the operation was expected to begin today.

Palestinian generals had presented the deployment plan late Wednesday at a meeting with their Israeli counterparts, which was convened in an effort to avert a threatened Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Israel has demanded that the Palestinians take action to stop repeated rocket and mortar fire targeting Israelis.

Abbas has been holding talks with leaders of militant groups in Gaza since Tuesday, and his aides said he was edging closer to a deal with them.

The militants say they are ready to halt attacks provided Israel stops military operations, a promise Israel has refused to make.

Israeli security officials said about 1,000 Palestinian officers would be deployed. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had approved the arrangement, they said.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said the deployment of forces on the frontier could be a first step toward a wider return of Palestinians’ security control in their areas of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Even as the two sides appeared to make progress, the violence persisted. Two 13-year-old Palestinian boys were killed in separate clashes with Israeli troops in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian officials said.

Israeli troops shot and killed a boy who fired a homemade rifle at them near the West Bank village of Tubas, Palestinian witnesses said. The Israeli army said that a large crowd had gathered and that it was beginning to riot when troops spotted what appeared to be a gunman in the crowd and opened fire.

Also, troops shot and killed a boy in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, hospital officials said. The military said soldiers had fired at two suspicious Palestinians crawling in an off-limits area.