Israel to hand towns to Palestinian control

Israel has agreed to hand four more West Bank towns to Palestinian control, a Palestinian official said tonight.

The agreement in principle was reached in a meeting between Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian Security Chief Mohammad Dahlan, said the official.

The towns to be handed over will be Ramallah, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya and Jericho, he said, adding that details of the hand over would be discussed in another meeting on Sunday.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah.

Israel also announced that it will permit Yasser Arafat to travel to the Gaza Strip to visit the grave of his sister Yousra, who died earlier this week and was buried in Gaza City, Israel TV reported.

It would be Arafat’s first time leaving his besieged compound in Ramallah in more than a year and a half.

Palestinian Security Chief Mohammad Dahlan said: “We have agreed on Israeli withdrawal from four Palestinian towns in the West Bank in the coming two weeks,” Dahlan said.

“The meeting was very constructive.”

Israeli officials confirmed that the four towns would be handed over within two weeks, starting next week with Jericho and Qalqiliya.

The other two cities were to be handed over in the following week providing certain conditions are met, said Shirli Eden, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Defence Ministry.

She said the conditions include: “No terrorist attacks, the Palestinians begin to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and the Palestinians create an apparatus for dealing with wanted people.”

Eden added that Israel will make a number of humanitarian gestures, including reducing the number of roadblocks in the West Bank and providing additional permits for Palestinian workers in Israel.