VARIOUS: ISRAELI FORCES HAVE PULLED OUT OF NORTHERN GAZA WHILE LEADING PALESTINIAN GROUPS DELCARE CEASEFIRE

Record ID: 400721

  • Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELI FORCES HAVE PULLED OUT OF NORTHERN GAZA WHILE LEADING PALESTINIAN GROUPS DELCARE CEASEFIRE
  • Date: 1st July 2003
  • Summary: (W7) EREZ CHECKPOINT BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA (JUNE 29) (REUTERS) 1. SLV NIGHT VIEWS OF ISRAELI MILITARY VEHICLES DRIVING FROM GAZA, CROSSING EREZ CHECKPOINT, AND DRIVING BACK TO ISRAEL; SLV BULLDOZER CROSSING CHECKPOINT; SLV SOLDIERS; SLV JEEP CROSSING CHECKPOINT; SLV SOLDIERS GETTING OUT OF JEEP (10 SHOTS) 1.47 2. MV/SLV SOLDIERS UNLOADING EQUIPME
  • Embargoed: 16th July 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: EREZ CROSSING AT BORDER BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA / RAMALLAH, WEST BANK / BEIT HANOUN, GAZA / NAHAL OZ, ISRAEL
  • City:
  • Country: Gaza Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVAEB44BYRE6W7MGZO2HTT3UYZ1D
  • Story Text: Israeli forces have pulled out of northern Gaza after
    leading Palestinian militant groups declared a three-month
    suspension of attacks on Israelis in breakthroughs for a
    U.S.-backed peace plan.

    Some 50 Israeli armoured vehicles rumbled out of the
    northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, putting into motion a Gaza
    pullback deal with the Palestinian Authority welcomed by
    Washington as an important step towards peace.

    Under the Gaza accord, Palestinian forces are to prevent
    anti-Israeli attacks in areas in which they deploy while
    Israeli soldiers continue to guard Jewish settlements.

    In a move viewed with suspicion by Israel, Palestinian
    militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have killed
    hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, announced a
    three-month truce that carried a long list of conditions.

    The developments coincided with a visit to Israel and the
    Palestinian territories by U.S. national security adviser
    Condoleezza Rice to promote a "road map" to peace affirmed at
    a June 4 Middle East summit attended by President George W.

    Bush.

    Israel called the ceasefire an empty tactic aimed at
    giving militant groups breathing room in the face of a U.S.

    diplomatic drive against them and Israeli attacks on their
    senior members.

    Such "track-and-kill" operations seemed likely to be
    curtailed under the Gaza Strip pullback deal and security
    sources said Israel would cease lightning incursions and
    dismantle military checkpoints in Gaza.

    In preparation for the pullbacks, one of the steps
    charted by the peace plan on the path to the creation of a
    Palestinian state by 2005, Palestinian security officers
    toured the Gaza Strip on Sunday with their Israeli
    counterparts.

    The officers exchanged handshakes and smiles.

    The Israeli army, which occupied Beit Hanoun a month ago
    after rocket attacks on southern Israel, was due to hand
    control of Gaza's main north-south road to Palestinian
    security forces on Monday.

    "Finally, we'll get home and see our girlfriends, mothers
    and brothers," a smiling Israeli soldier said.

    The Palestinian information minister Nabil Amr said that
    it was a first step: "Well, I think it is a positive step
    towards the implementation of the 'road map'. The
    implementation of the 'road map' already started. We hope that
    the second step will be in Bethlehem. If the Israelis will
    continue this direction I am sure that you can finish the
    first stage of the 'road map' within one month or two months."
    As the last tank pulled out of Beit Hanoun, a local
    youngster ran behind waving a Palestinian flag in its dusty
    wake.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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