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Israel decides to release almost 1,000 prisoners starting Wednesday
Israel's cabinet raised the number of Palestinian prisoners lined up for release to almost 1,000, public radio said, as an Israeli woman and her three children were hurt in a Jerusalem shooting.
The radio said another 442 Palestinians would be released, in addition to the 540 prisoners -- including 210 members of the radical groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas -- already lined up to be freed.
The releases will start on Wednesday, with administrative detainees, security prisoners, illegal workers and criminals making up the new list, the radio said.
Israel's army radio said around 200 of the latest group were also members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but Israeli officials were not immediately available to confirm the reports.
The Palestinians have been pushing for the release of all their estimated 6,000 prisoners in Israeli jails.
In southern Jerusalem late Sunday, a 40-year-old woman was seriously wounded and her three children were also hurt as Palestinian gunmen fired on their car, Israeli emergency service officials said.
The woman's daughter, nine, was shot in the leg, while the other children were only lightly hurt by shrapnel, public radio said. The attack took place near Gilo, a Jewish neighbourhood built on annexed Palestinian land.
The shooting comes exactly a month after the Israeli army pulled out of the nearby West Bank town of Bethlehem and surrounding villages, as part of a deal to transfer security responsibility to Palestinian security forces.
Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan and an Israeli counterpart, General Amos Gilad, meanwhile, failed to agree on further Israeli army withdrawals from West Bank cities, a Palestinian source told AFP.
"The meeting was serious but nothing new came from it," said the source after a meeting between the two at the Erez checkpoint between northern Gaza and Israel.
"There is no agreement between us and Gilad about a withdrawal from Ramallah and Hebron," he said.
Israel said in late July it would withdraw from two more West Bank cities, thought to be Jericho and Qalqilya, following pullbacks in late June and early July from Bethlehem and in the Gaza Strip.
But the Palestinians have insisted the army hand over a major city like Ramallah, saying a withdrawal from Jericho would be little more than cosmetic as it is already under Palestinian control.
The Palestinian leadership earlier Sunday abandoned plans to expel 18 wanted militants from Ramallah.
A row over the 18, who were arrested Saturday at the headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and were to have been transferred to Jericho or Gaza, prompted a hardline Palestinian group to threaten to end a truce.
But the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades issued a new statement saying it remained committed to the suspension of anti-Israeli attacks. Fourteen of the group arrested in Ramallah are Brigades members.
The Israeli government has urged the Palestinians to crack down on groups such as the Brigades, insisting that the ceasefire announced by the main militant groups on June 29 was insufficient.
But Palestinian minister of state without portfolio Abdelfatah Hamayel said the leadership was seeking "international guarantees" that "hundreds of wanted Palestinians" would not be targeted by Israeli attacks.
In a move designed to give the peace process a further boost, on top of the prisoner releases, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom met his Palestinian counterpart Nabil Shaath in Jerusalem for their first ever formal talks.
After the meeting both ministers declared their commitment to working towards the implementation of the US-backed roadmap for peace and set up a joint committee which would discuss any obstacles.
But the differences between the two sides soon emerged as Shaath said that Israel's construction of a controversial security barrier was "creating a major rift in the peace process".
A senior Israeli official said the Palestinians had been told that the Israeli government had no intention of executing a U-turn on plans to build the barrier across the West Bank.
The Palestinians regard it as a move to preempt the boundaries of any future two-state settlement although Israel insists its intention is merely to stop infiltrations by Palestinian militants.
The truce by Palestinian radical groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad has led to a sharp drop in violence although tensions on the ground remain.
Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian driver Sunday after the man tried to run away from a checkpoint on the road from Ramallah to Jerusalem, police officials said.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/030803/1/3d337.html
Israel's cabinet raised the number of Palestinian prisoners lined up for release to almost 1,000, public radio said, as an Israeli woman and her three children were hurt in a Jerusalem shooting.
The radio said another 442 Palestinians would be released, in addition to the 540 prisoners -- including 210 members of the radical groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas -- already lined up to be freed.
The releases will start on Wednesday, with administrative detainees, security prisoners, illegal workers and criminals making up the new list, the radio said.
Israel's army radio said around 200 of the latest group were also members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but Israeli officials were not immediately available to confirm the reports.
The Palestinians have been pushing for the release of all their estimated 6,000 prisoners in Israeli jails.
In southern Jerusalem late Sunday, a 40-year-old woman was seriously wounded and her three children were also hurt as Palestinian gunmen fired on their car, Israeli emergency service officials said.
The woman's daughter, nine, was shot in the leg, while the other children were only lightly hurt by shrapnel, public radio said. The attack took place near Gilo, a Jewish neighbourhood built on annexed Palestinian land.
The shooting comes exactly a month after the Israeli army pulled out of the nearby West Bank town of Bethlehem and surrounding villages, as part of a deal to transfer security responsibility to Palestinian security forces.
Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan and an Israeli counterpart, General Amos Gilad, meanwhile, failed to agree on further Israeli army withdrawals from West Bank cities, a Palestinian source told AFP.
"The meeting was serious but nothing new came from it," said the source after a meeting between the two at the Erez checkpoint between northern Gaza and Israel.
"There is no agreement between us and Gilad about a withdrawal from Ramallah and Hebron," he said.
Israel said in late July it would withdraw from two more West Bank cities, thought to be Jericho and Qalqilya, following pullbacks in late June and early July from Bethlehem and in the Gaza Strip.
But the Palestinians have insisted the army hand over a major city like Ramallah, saying a withdrawal from Jericho would be little more than cosmetic as it is already under Palestinian control.
The Palestinian leadership earlier Sunday abandoned plans to expel 18 wanted militants from Ramallah.
A row over the 18, who were arrested Saturday at the headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and were to have been transferred to Jericho or Gaza, prompted a hardline Palestinian group to threaten to end a truce.
But the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades issued a new statement saying it remained committed to the suspension of anti-Israeli attacks. Fourteen of the group arrested in Ramallah are Brigades members.
The Israeli government has urged the Palestinians to crack down on groups such as the Brigades, insisting that the ceasefire announced by the main militant groups on June 29 was insufficient.
But Palestinian minister of state without portfolio Abdelfatah Hamayel said the leadership was seeking "international guarantees" that "hundreds of wanted Palestinians" would not be targeted by Israeli attacks.
In a move designed to give the peace process a further boost, on top of the prisoner releases, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom met his Palestinian counterpart Nabil Shaath in Jerusalem for their first ever formal talks.
After the meeting both ministers declared their commitment to working towards the implementation of the US-backed roadmap for peace and set up a joint committee which would discuss any obstacles.
But the differences between the two sides soon emerged as Shaath said that Israel's construction of a controversial security barrier was "creating a major rift in the peace process".
A senior Israeli official said the Palestinians had been told that the Israeli government had no intention of executing a U-turn on plans to build the barrier across the West Bank.
The Palestinians regard it as a move to preempt the boundaries of any future two-state settlement although Israel insists its intention is merely to stop infiltrations by Palestinian militants.
The truce by Palestinian radical groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad has led to a sharp drop in violence although tensions on the ground remain.
Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian driver Sunday after the man tried to run away from a checkpoint on the road from Ramallah to Jerusalem, police officials said.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/030803/1/3d337.html
