Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres are scheduled to meet Sunday at 5:00pm (1400 GMT) at Gaza City's international airport, a top Palestinian official told AFP.
The meeting will be held despite the political far-right's growing opposition to the long-awaited meeting, said Haaretz newspaper.
Israel Radio reported that the far-right National Union Party was scheduled to meet before the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday to discuss whether to remain part of the national unity government.
Shas Party leader Eli Yishai also said he was opposed to the meeting, and that he was demanding that the inner cabinet convene to decide whether the Peres-Arafat meeting could take place, said the radio report, cited by Haaretz.
In Peres' office Saturday, there was talk of the "great efforts that Arafat and the Palestinian Authority were making to stop terrorism and in preventive actions," said the paper.
Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer seemed to echo those words when he said that he saw "a clear trend toward an end to the violence" on the part of the Palestinians, it said.
But it said that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was slightly more skeptical when he told US Secretary of State Colin Powell that preparations were being made toward holding the meeting, but that it all depended on whether the ceasefire held.
Ben Eliezer has handed Peres a defense establishment document which includes a series of demands from Arafat, including a complete ceasefire as well as PA action against “terror,” in exchange for an easing of the blockades on West Bank cities and the lifting of economic restrictions.
If Peres and Arafat do meet, then the two will release a joint statement which was drafted at a meeting Saturday between Peres and leading Palestinian negotiators Abu Ala and Saeb Erekat in Tel Aviv, the paper said.
According to Israeli sources, these are the main points of the anticipated joint communiqué:
* A commitment to the ceasefire and the implementation of the Tenet understandings (security measures) and of the Mitchell Report (gradual movement toward a renewal of the diplomatic negotiations).
* Redeployment of the Israeli army to positions held before the outbreak of the Intifada a year ago.
* Resumption of the joint security coordination committee, headed by a CIA representative.
* An end to “incitement.”
* Lifting of closures and opening the roads connecting the Palestinian towns.
* Issuing work permits to Palestinians to enter Israel.
Despite what the Israeli officials described as a relatively quiet night, Israeli tanks rolled briefly into the Gaza Strip on Saturday night.
"Three Israeli tanks made an incursion of several hundred meters (yards) at Deir Al Balah, in autonomous Palestinian territory in the center of the Gaza Strip," a Palestinian security official told AFP.
He said the tanks were likely responding to mortars fired at the nearby Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom, although there was no statement from the Israeli military.
With US military strikes against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime seeming all but inevitable, international efforts for Middle East peace talks have been stepped up and pushed the sides into the five-day-old ceasefire.
According to AFP estimates, well over 620 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the latest uprising against 43 years of military occupation began in September 2000. Israeli losses have been nowhere near this figure.
Human rights group Amnesty International has reported nearly 100 Palestinian children killed by Israeli soldiers, nearly all in situations where the occupation troops were in no immediate danger - Albawaba.com
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