Israelis and Palestinians to discuss ceasefire

Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs had a meeting set for today to discuss implementation of a ceasefire negotiated by CIA director George Tenet, after violence coloured the first day of the truce.

An Israeli military intelligence officer, Lt Col Yehuda Edri, 45, was shot and killed by a Palestinian informer yesterday. The two had arranged a meeting, and the informer, identified as Hassan Abu Shaireh, 30, from the Azza refugee camp in Bethlehem, approached the officer’s car and killed him. Another soldier shot and killed Abu Shaireh.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah said it carried out the shooting and also said it fired mortar shells at a Jewish settlement in Gaza yesterday, a day after the truce went into effect.

Early today, Palestinians threw grenades at an Israeli outpost on the Gaza-Egypt border, the military said. The post has been a frequent target of Palestinian fire.

Three Israelis were wounded yesterday when Palestinians opened fire on their car near Ramallah in the West Bank.

Near Khan Younis in Gaza, Palestinians said Israeli forces fired on demonstrators, wounding six, one critically. Israeli military sources said soldiers fired at the legs of rioters.

Today’s meeting of Palestinian and Israeli security commanders was set before Tenet left the area Wednesday, after negotiating the terms of the truce.

The Tenet plan calls for troops to return to positions before fighting broke out on September 28, starting their redeployment today.

According to the truce terms, both sides must prevent violence. Palestinians must collect illegal weapons, including mortars, and Israelis are not to use lethal weapons against Palestinian demonstrators.

Israel’s military took the first steps toward implementing the ceasefire, but officials said no steps would be taken where violence continued.

Israeli tanks on carriers rumbled back from forward positions in Gaza. At the Netzarim junction, a flashpoint throughout more than eight months of fighting, Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli soldiers after a tank was withdrawn.

Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers dismantled roadblocks, with forklifts hauling concrete barriers onto trucks.

Israel allowed some Palestinians to leave through the Rafah crossing point to Egypt for the first time since June 2, after a Palestinian suicide bomber struck Tel Aviv, killing 21 people, most of them Israeli teenagers.

Also, Israel allowed the reopening of the Allenby Bridge between the West Bank and Jordan.

But Prime Minister Ariel Sharon drew limits. In a meeting with special Russian envoy Andrei Vdovin, Sharon said that the incidents ‘‘obligate me to give instructions that at places where terror and violence continue, we will not be able to carry out our commitments,’’ according to a statement from Sharon’s office.

Major General Giora Eiland, chief of Israeli military operations, said it is too early to say whether the Palestinians are putting enough effort into ensuring the cease-fire. ‘‘So far we are not very pleased with the results,’’ Eiland said.