A top Israeli commander told the Palestinians there would be no more army withdrawals from reoccupied Palestinian areas until the PA security forces start to fight "terror," the army said in a statement.
Israel's General Moshe Kaplinsky, commander of forces in the West Bank, told his Palestinian counterpart General Haj Ismail that there would be "no change to anything on the security side at this stage." "A change on the ground depends on the long-term security situation and on Palestinian actions against terrorism," the statement said.
Israeli army radio said that the Israeli security services had information about attacks that were under preparation by Islamic Jihad, whose armed wing had not yet been dismantled in Hebron, where Israel was to stage the next phase of its pullback.
Arafat's advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP the meeting with the Israeli side to discuss expanding the Israeli pullback had brought "no progress". "The Israeli side refused to respect the engagements it had undertaken under the plans dubbed 'Gaza-Bethlehem First' and that should have resulted in a withdrawal from Hebron," he said.
Meanwhile, an international task force including members of the "quartet" of Middle East peace brokers raised concerns on Friday about what it called "the deteriorating Palestinian humanitarian situation."
"It (the task force) reiterated the Quartet's call for full, safe and unfettered access for international and humanitarian personnel," it said in a statement published after two-day talks with Palestinian and Israeli officials in Paris.
The International Task Force on Reform groups the "quartet" of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations with the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and donor countries such as Japan and Norway.
Its aim is to get Middle East peace talks back on track by monitoring and aiding the Palestinian Authority with financial and institutional reform.
The statement did not elaborate on the task force's concerns for Palestinians' conditions. UN special envoy Catherine Bertini, who returned from the region this week, cited increasing malnutrition and illness, precarious water supplies and difficulties in agriculture.
Israeli officials agreed to ease some conditions for Palestinians, notably by easing ambulances' passage through checkpoints, Bertini said on Thursday.
Sources close to the talks in Paris stressed beforehand they were at working-group level only and unlikely in themselves to lead to immediate decisions.
The statement added the task force had discussed status reports on reform efforts and "discussed the need for continued Palestinian commitment to the reform process, Israeli facilitation and support from the international community."
It said it would deliver a report on the meeting to the quartet ahead of a scheduled ministerial meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly next month.
Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan al-Khatib said task force members had expressed satisfaction in the talks with reform efforts, but he warned further progress could be stunted by Israeli restrictions on freedom of movement.
"The ceiling on the reform process is the Israeli restrictions and we are coming close to that ceiling," he conveyed. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
