The Israeli Prime Minister said this evening that he still feared Israel may not have a peace partner in the Palestinians, despite a summit deal to end three weeks of violence. Ehud Barak made the remarks as both sides began to put into practice a US-brokered agreement to end the hostilities in which 105 people, almost all Arabs, have been killed since September 28. Israel today reopened international borders to Palestinians in the first tangible sign that yesterday's agreement is being implemented. Israel had closed Gaza's main airport and international border crossings connecting Gaza to Egypt and the West Bank to Jordan.
There has, however, been more violence between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian protesters. At least 30 Palestinians were wounded in clashes in the Gaza Strip, and there were also disturbances near the West Bank towns of Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron. The clashes are expected to overshadow a meeting later today of Israeli and Palestinian security officials. An Israeli military spokesman said that the meeting would be the first step towards implementing the agreement reached yesterday at an emergency summit in Egypt. Under the terms of the unsigned accord, both sides are to take concrete measures to stop the fighting, a fact-finding committee is to be set up and the United States is to try to re-focus attention on the wider peace process within weeks.
Meanwhile, Israeli military sources have said that eight Palestinians suspected of involvement in the lynching deaths of two Israeli soldiers last week have been captured. The killings took place in Ramallah, at the height of the recent unrest. The Israelis responded by attacking Palestinian targets with rockets fired from helicopter gunships.
Israel's right-wing opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, is reported to have abandoned talks with the Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, on forming a coalition government. A spokesman for Mr Sharon said that he saw no point in continuing the negotiations in view of Mr Barak's agreement to resume talks on an overall settlement with the Palestinians. Mr Sharon has been widely blamed for provoking the recent violence by visiting a Muslim holy site in Jerusalem three weeks ago.
Last night Ehud Barak said that he had ordered his security forces to do everything to implement the agreement. It is understood Israeli tanks have withdrawn from the outskirts of the West Bank town of Nablus. There has been a muted welcome in Israel for the agreement. But the Israeli cabinet minister and a chief negotiator of the Oslo Peace Accords, Yossi Belin, said that the peace process must not be held hostage to the recent violence. Many Palestinians politicians have expressed dissatisfaction with the accord. A senior Palestinian official in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti, said that the agreement did not take account of the Palestinians' situation.
