Israel prepared to withdraw, says Peres

ISRAELI Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said yesterday that the army was prepared to withdraw from two West Bank towns occupied for more than a month as long as Palestinian security forces were ready to take over and prevent attacks against Israel.

In yesterday’s violence, two Palestinian militants were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers when they tried to attack a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza Strip, the army said, while two soldiers were lightly injured in a clash. Mosque loudspeakers in the nearby Palestinian town of Khan Yunis announced that the militant Islamic Jihad group carried out the attack.

Also, Israeli authorities agreed to allow the reopening of the office of the leading Palestinian official in east Jerusalem, Sari Nusseibeh. Police closed his office two weeks ago, alleging that Nusseibeh, president of Al-Quds University, violated peace accords by engaging in Palestinian political activity in Jerusalem.