The Israel Defense Force has set a Nov. 1 target for withdrawing from Arab population centers in the West Bank.
A senior IDF source told the Israeli daily Ha’aretz that the army would not be prepared to withdraw before the November date, given the preparations necessary for a redeployment.
Security sources were quoted as saying that redeployment would require the paving of some 70 miles of roads, which would bypass Arab population centers and would be used by Israeli patrols.
The planning and logistics branches of the army have completed the basic plan for a redeployment, which would include a preliminary stage of paving roads, according to Ha’aretz.
However, the redeployment date clashes with Palestinian plans to hold elections in the territories in September.
The chief Palestinian negotiator on elections, Saeb Erekat, said this week that the elections would take place two months after an expected July signing of an agreement for implementing the next phase of Palestinian self-rule.
The Palestinians want to hold elections only after the redeployment of Israeli troops takes place.
Israel and the Palestinians have set July 1 as a target date for reaching agreement on elections in the territories and an IDF redeployment.
A senior Israeli official said Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat would probably meet later this month to resolve the differences.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
