Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat agreed this week to hold continued contacts to coordinate the Israeli redeployment in Hebron and easing of the closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Their meeting Thursday at the Erez Crossing on the Gaza-Israeli border was the first since the string of suicide attacks in Israel between Feb. 25 and March 4 that claimed 59 victims.
After the bombings by Islamic militants, Israel postponed its planned redeployment from most of Hebron and suspended further implementation of the Interim Agreement with the Palestinians.
Israel demanded that the Palestinian Authority take decisive steps to capture the leaders of the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad fundamentalist groups.
Israeli sources were quoted earlier as saying that Israel had initially set the capture of the head of the Hamas military wing, Mohammad Deif, as a precondition to resuming implementation of the Israeli-Palestinian accords.
But that demand was withdrawn in light of what were described as the “serious” efforts by the Palestinian security forces to crack down on militants, the sources said.
Top Palestinian and Israeli security officials took part in Thursday’s meeting, including Ami Ayalon, the head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, and his Palestinian counterpart, Mohammad Dahlan.
Palestinian security officials briefed the Israelis on their crackdown on Hamas, which has included arrests of some 900 suspected activists since the bombings. According to local reports, some of the detainees already have been released.
Arafat also charged that Iran is trying to unite Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Lebanonbased Islamic militant movement Hezbollah against the peace process and the Palestinian self-rule government in particular.
But Arafat said he would not allow such activities to happen in the autonomous areas.
Arafat also confirmed that the Palestine National Council would convene Monday to discuss a number of issues, including revoking the anti-Israel clauses in its charter.
Asked whether he believed that the clauses would be dropped, Arafat said, “We are committed to what has been agreed upon and what has been signed.”
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