Palestinian forces begin deployment in Gaza

Palestinian security forces started deploying in the northern Gaza Strip today in an effort to halt Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli targets and stave off a threatened Israeli military offensive.

A group of Palestinian security officers took up positions this morning on the Palestinian side of the Erez border crossing to Israel, site of a suicide bombing a year ago in which four Israelis were killed.

They were the first of hundreds of Palestinian police due to deploy in northern Gaza today to end the rocket attacks.

This is the first result of renewed security co-operation that has led to hopes the two sides could end more than four years of bloody conflict and resume peace talks.

A period of calm could lead to peace negotiations, starting with co-ordination of Israel’s planned pullout from Gaza in the summer.

But renewed violence would likely trigger an Israeli military offensive, already approved by Israeli leaders, burying peace prospects and undermining Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ attempt to establish a regime based on calm after the death of long-time leader Yasser Arafat, associated by many with violent resistance.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said the agreement over deploying Palestinian police along the Gaza border could be the “beginning of the process of trying to co-ordinate so that Palestinian Authority can redeploy its forces in all Palestinian areas, at least in Gaza, and then in the West Bank”.

That would restore the situation that preceded the outbreak of violence in September 2000, which led to Israel’s sending troops into the West Bank and Gaza, retaking areas handed over to the Palestinians under interim peace deals.

Israeli military chief Lt Gen Moshe Yaalon praised the Palestinian leadership. “Today we are witness to the beginning of positive developments on the Palestinian side,” he said at a memorial ceremony late for 22 victims of a double bombing in 1995, “which are an expression of the understanding that terrorism does not pay.”