Four Israeli soldiers were wounded early Saturday morning, one of them moderately and three lightly, while carrying out arrests in the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus.
The four were hit while trying to blow up a door of one of the houses in the refugee camp, Haaretz reported. Four Fatah and Hamas activists were detained in the operation, and four other Palestinians were arrested overnight in villages near Nablus and Ramallah.
Meanwhile, Israel's Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer ordered troops Friday to leave Palestinian-controlled parts of the West Bank city of Hebron, his spokesman Yarden Vatikay said. Vatikay added, however, that the order had been given "in principle" to withdraw within a few days, but that the military would decide when exactly the pullout will take place.
Haaretz also reported that the American "roadmap," to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians, presented earlier this week to Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington DC, calls for the establishment of an interim Palestinian state before the end of 2003. Shortly thereafter, the draft plan calls for both sides to start negotiations for a permanent agreement, including final borders, to be completed by 2005. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
