As the first contingent of Palestinian police prepared to assume their duties in the Gaza Strip and West Bank town of Jericho, the Palestine Liberation Organization told Israel it needed more time before assuming control of the two areas.
Highlighting the delay in implementing the self-rule accord signed last week in Cairo, groups of Palestinian police gathered at Egyptian and Jordanian border crossings, but did not take over Israel Defense Force postings on schedule.
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat said meanwhile that he needs yet more time to name the 24-member Palestinian Authority, which will have overall responsibility for directing Palestinian affairs in Gaza and Jericho.
Arafat had asked for more time to implement the accord when he and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin met last week in Cairo to sign the final agreement for implementing Palestinian autonomy.
Some 330 Palestinian police, in new olive green uniforms and red berets, gathered Sunday at the Egyptian side of Rafah, the border town separating Gaza from Egypt.
But it remained unclear when they would cross into Gaza and take over from the IDF the duties of maintaining law and order.
According to one report, the police would wait in Rafah until several other contingents, trained in Libya, Iraq, Yemen and Sudan, joined them there.
Another contingent of police was meanwhile gathering at the Jordanian border crossing into the West Bank. There, too, it was unclear when they would begin assuming their duties in Jericho.
IDF officials reported meanwhile that five large police installations in Gaza have been emptied of Israeli troops and are ready to receive the Palestinian police.
The officials said there have already been some joint Israeli-Palestinian patrols, which were undertaken in an effort to familiarize the Palestinians with the territory to come under their control.
According to the IDF officials, nearly all the police and security installations to be handed over to the Palestinians have already been evacuated of Israeli troops. All the remaining installations, the officials said, will be vacated by the end of this week.
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