Top Palestinian security officials met early Monday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to brief him on a gradual Israeli army pullout deal from Gaza and West Bank town of Bethlehem that both sides had reached on Sunday night.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a top aide to Arafat, confirmed that a deal to pull out from the Gaza Strip and West Bank town of Bethlehem had been reached between Israel and the Palestinians on Sunday night.
"An agreement had been reached with Israel to begin a pullout from Gaza and Bethlehem within the coming 48 hours," said Abu Rudeineh.
He said that on Monday morning, high-ranking security officers from both sides would meet on the ground in Gaza and Bethlehem to guarantee the implementation of the plan.
Israeli and Palestinian officials agreed Sunday to immediately implement a plan under which the Palestinians would restore quiet in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, and Israel would ease its pressure there, the Israeli Defense Ministry said in Tel Aviv.
The agreement was announced after a three-hour meeting among Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razaq Al Yahya, and their senior military and intelligence officers. The two sides met at the seaside Hilton hotel in Tel Aviv.
"The Palestinian side will assume responsibility for calming the security situation, reducing violence and terror activities," Ben-Eliezer's media adviser, Yarden Vatikay, said in a statement.
Israel undertook "to do everything to ease up on the Palestinian population, at this stage especially in the civilian and humanitarian realms," the Israeli statement said.
The Israeli statement did not say if, and when, Israel will pull back its troops. Vatikay would not answer questions and the army spokesman's office said it has received no new instructions.
However, the statement did say that in the coming days Israeli and Palestinian field commanders would meet in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.
Islamic resistance movement Hamas leaders in Gaza said they would wait and see if the Israelis would carry out the agreement.
A senior Hamas leader who asked not to be identified told United Press International that Hamas leadership is intending to hold an urgent meeting in Gaza on Monday to discuss Hamas reaction to the deal.
Hamas is rejecting the peace process and all the peace agreements signed with Israel. The movement says it would not stop attacks on Israel unless Israel completely withdraws from all the West Bank and Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem as well.
The movement's armed wing had carried out dozens of suicide bombing attacks into Israel that killed hundreds of Israelis. The Israeli army retaliated to the attacks and killed hundreds of militants.
Ben-Eliezer had raised the idea of taking one area as a pilot project in which the Palestinians would see to restoring security, Israel would pull troops back and ease economic pressure. Once the situation calms down in that area, both sides will move to implement the pullout plan in another area.
The Israeli minister presented the idea to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Alexandria last month, and seemed to have won his support. Egypt reportedly pressured Arafat to accept it.
The Palestinians wanted it implemented in Gaza and a West Bank town, arguing that their people would suspect "Gaza first" would turn out to be "Gaza only." The sides then compromised on Bethlehem.
The Palestinian Authority's infrastructure and security system are fairly intact in Gaza. In the past the Palestinian Preventive Security succeeded in imposing order in Bethlehem. In recent weeks Palestinians have been trying to launch a new initiative that would limit attacks on Israel. Ben-Eliezer on Sunday told the Cabinet of a change of atmosphere among the Palestinians, "mainly led by the Fatah and the Tanzim (militia)."
The Israeli statement issued late Sunday night quoted the minister as saying the new agreement "would create confidence-building measures that are necessary at the beginning of every future security and diplomatic move."
Ben-Eliezer on Sunday told the Cabinet that Israel has issued 9,500 of the 12,000 entry permits it planned to give Palestinian workers. The process has been slow because the Palestinians must first find Israeli employers who will ask for their services and only then get the entry permit. However, many Palestinians have lost contact with Israeli employers and Israelis have been reluctant to hire Palestinians because of intifada.
Ben-Eliezer said he planned to issue another batch of entry permits once the 12,000 are distributed.
He said Israel planned to issue entry permits to 5,000 Palestinian businessmen and so far 3,000 such permits have been issued.
Some 3,000 West Bank Palestinians will be allowed into Israel for the olive picking season, he said.
Palestinians have been suffering from a very high rate of unemployment, and increasing malnutrition, partly because they could not work in Israel. Israeli wages are several times higher than those in the West Bank and Gaza.
(Joshua Brilliant reported from Tel Aviv. Saud Abu Ramadan reported from Gaza.)
