Sharon says he's ready to talk with Palestinians
Israel considers lifting travel ban on Arafat
JERUSALEM (CNN) --Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon signaled a new willingness Sunday to pursue cease-fire negotiations with the Palestinians, even as Israeli forces pounded Palestinian targets following weekend terror attacks.
According to a spokesman, Sharon told his Cabinet he wanted to pursue talks with the Palestinians -- even before this week's arrival of U.S. peace envoy Anthony Zinni -- and reiterated he was backing off his earlier demand of a prerequisite seven days of calm.Later in a speech to soldiers, Sharon said he also favors lifting the ban preventing Yasser Arafat from traveling outside Ramallah, which would allow the Palestinian Authority president to attend the Arab League summit where a peace plan proposed by Saudi Prince Abdullah will likely be considered.
Sharon's comments came a day after two back-to-back Palestinian terror attacks killed at least 13 people as Israelis gathered outside at the close of the Jewish Sabbath. In response, Israeli forces destroyed Arafat's empty headquarters in Gaza and hit other Palestinian targets in and around Gaza.
Early Monday, Israeli army tanks and forces entered the West Bank town of Qalqilya, Israeli military sources said. Few details were available, but an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said troops entered the Palestinian-ruled town to look for weapons and other "terrorist infrastructure."
Zinni, who is expected to press for a cease-fire, is scheduled to return to the Mideast on Thursday. (Full story) Sources said there are plans for Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and other senior leaders to meet before Zinni's arrival, perhaps as early as Monday.
As for Arafat, Sharon indicated he is amenable to allowing the Palestinian leader to attend the Arab summit in Beirut, Lebanon, in late March. Arafat's movements have been restricted since early December when Israeli tanks surrounded his offices in Ramallah in the West Bank. He has been able to move around the city but not outside it.
Sharon said Arafat had fulfilled his conditions for easing the travel restriction by arresting the men suspected of assassinating Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in October and by arresting people suspected of being responsible for attempting to smuggle 50 tons of weapons into Gaza in January.
Sources at the Palestinian Authority said recently that Majdi al-Rimawi, a member of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- the group that claimed responsibility for Zeevi's death -- was arrested late last month.
The sources said al-Rimawi was the last suspect arrested under conditions Israel set up before it would consider lifting its restrictions on Arafat.
Earlier Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had urged Sharon to allow Arafat to attend the summit.
"I think that Prime Minister Sharon should give this serious consideration, as we get closer to the time of the summit," Powell had told CBS's "Face the Nation."
Sharon's about-face on his previous call for a week of calm was, as he described it, a bow to reality in the Middle East, where the violence has escalated sharply over the past week.
"At the level of terrorist activity, which is very high, and the scope of our counter activity, it is impossible in the present situation to reach seven days of complete quiet," spokesman Ra'anan Gissin said Sharon told Cabinet members. "We have tried that, and it didn't work.
"And since our main goal is a cease-fire, I have told the U.S. that we are ready to enter in immediate discussions to implement the Tenet plan," Gissin quoted Sharon as saying.
The plan put forth by CIA Director George Tenet last year calls for a cease-fire and security cooperation between the sides. (Tenet plan)
The Tenet plan is the first step toward implementation of the Mitchell plan -- named for former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell who headed a commission that studied the Mideast problem -- which likewise calls for an immediate cease-fire, a freeze on Jewish settlement construction and other conditions for the resumption of peace talks. (Mitchell plan)
Despite indications from both sides that they wanted the bloodshed to end, the violence continued, as did the war of words between the Israelis and Palestinians.
A shooting Sunday near a cemetery in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod wounded a 13-year-old boy; Israeli police said they had one gunman in custody and were searching for two others seen in the area.
In another incident, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian gunman whom a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said had fired at Israeli workers in the Netzarim settlement in Gaza. Another gunman was wounded.
Elsewhere in Gaza, the IDF said it attacked a Palestinian general intelligence building in Rafah and conducted raids and searches in southern Gaza as part of its fight against terrorism.
Israeli helicopters fired at a Palestinian police station in the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza and F-16 warplanes struck another police station in Sudania, north of Gaza.
Explosives labs found
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said incursions into the West Bank have uncovered three bomb factories. The explosives were found in a Bethlehem refugee camp during an ongoing operation that began Saturday.On Saturday, the IDF reported its troops had found 10 Qassam-2 rockets and an explosives lab at Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank.
The Qassam-2 has been fired periodically at Israeli targets since February. Israeli officials say though it is highly inaccurate, it enables militant groups to strike deeper into Israeli territory than ever before.
The discovery of bomb factories was made public after two Palestinian terror attacks Saturday capped a bloody and tumultuous week in which roughly 140 Israelis and Palestinians, including numerous children, were killed.
Terror attacks leave 13 dead
In Jerusalem, a Palestinian suicide bomber set off an explosion in a trendy cafe in the heart of the city Saturday evening, killing at least 11 people and wounding more than 50. About two hours earlier in Netanya, two Palestinian gunmen killed two, including an Israeli man and a 9-month-old girl, and wounded 35. (Map)The suicide bombing came at the end of the Jewish Sabbath at a time when the cafe was packed with diners. Israeli police said the bomber entered the Moment Café and detonated a large bomb attached to his body. (Full story)
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the bombing as well as the attack in Netanya. The Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas, which the U.S. State Department labels a terrorist organization, also claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem cafe attack.
Israel forces responded quickly, launching a missile assault that left Arafat's Gaza compound in rubble. (Full story)
The Israelis and Palestinians continued Sunday to blame each other for the bloodshed. Even as Sharon talked of lifting travel restrictions on Arafat, top aides tied the Palestinian leader to the latest terror attacks.
"What Arafat is looking for is a deterioration, a regional deterioration, in order to take the whole region into a major war," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Gideon Meir told ABC's "This Week."
Dore Gold, senior adviser to Sharon, told ABC, "It's clear that when young men strap dynamite to themselves and go into a crowded Israeli cafe, we are talking about terrorism, plain and simple."
"When it comes from an organization like Hamas, an international terrorist organization, and it's supported by Yasser Arafat, we're dealing with international terrorism," he said. "We must break the terrorism, get everybody to renounce violence, but particularly the Palestinians."
Erakat responded, "I hope that Mr. Gold and Mr. Sharon will stop this broken record, assigning blame. Finger pointing will not save the lives of Israelis and Palestinians."
Erakat did not shy away from pointing the finger at the Israeli leader.
"He said two days, three days ago that he would inflict as much pain and suffering and killing on the Palestinians," Erakat said, noting that Israeli settlement-building is a source of the tension.
On a related front, Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in London Sunday afternoon to kick off a 10-day, 12-nation tour of the Middle East and Britain
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