JERUSALEM -Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that Israel is prepared to make painful compromises for peace
and has begun coordination with Palestinians on Israel's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip.
Violence could undermine the tentative steps being taken toward peace. After Sharon spoke, Israeli troops shot and killed two armed Palestinians seen approaching a West Bank settlement, the Israeli military said. The military said the incident occurred next to the settlement of Bracha, near the Palestinian city of Nablus, and both the Palestinians were carrying assault rifles.
Palestinian militants said the two belonged to an Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades cell financed by the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, who oppose any truce with Israel.
Al-Aqsa members in Balata said the two were guarding an abandoned building, and soldiers shot them with no provocation. The militants said the incident will not pass lightly indicating that they would retaliate, possibly endangering
the cease-fire.
Earlier, Palestinian security officials reported that Israeli troops on patrol in the West Bank village of Beitunia shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who threw stones at them. The teenager, Ala Hani, was killed when he was shot in the neck, the officials said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
Addressing the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem, Sharon said last week's summit showed that there can be progress toward peace if violence is ended.
At the summit, Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared a truce to end more than four years of bloodshed. Since then, five Palestinians have died in sporadic violence.
Alongside measures to cement the truce, Sharon is also dealing with increasingly harsh opposition to his plan to dismantle all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank in the summer. Extremists have sent death threats to some Israeli Cabinet ministers.
We needed to take painful steps toward peace, Sharon said, referring to his pullout plan, but he hoped to prevent a rift among his people. He said Israel is prepared to make painful compromises for peace but it will not make any compromises with terror.
He said he hoped that after the Israeli pullout, Gaza would be under the control of the Palestinian Authority and not Hamas or Islamic Jihad. He said coordination of the pullout with Palestinian officials has begun.
17
Archives
The Associated Press
20050216798midsize.jpg
Israeli police women scuffle with a female demonstrator during a rally against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan in Jerusalem Monday.
