August 20, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Saani 10, 1423

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AL QUDS, Aug 19: The Israeli army began to pull back its troops from Bethlehem on Monday night as part of a security plan with the Palestinians that calls for their withdrawal from the West Bank town and the Gaza Strip, Israeli television reported.

The plan for the phased withdrawal, dubbed “Gaza First”, was reached on Sunday night by Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer and Palestinian interior minister Abdel Razaq al-Yahya.

The Israeli troops will move back to the positions they occupied in the Gaza Strip and Bethlehem area before the intifada erupted in September 2000.

Palestinian forces are expected to take over security responsibilities from the Israelis and prevent Palestinian militants from attacking Israel.

If the arrangement works, it would be extended to other areas, but militant groups have vowed to thwart the plan.

Following deadly back-to-back suicide attacks in Al Quds nearly eight weeks ago, the Israeli army rolled into the West Bank and reoccupied seven out of eight major towns there, imposing curfews and carrying out frequent raids for suspected militants.

The agreement, which was reached in a four-hour meeting at a Tel Aviv hotel, could if implemented pave the way for a broader ceasefire to end more than 22 months of violence.

The evening talks at a Tel Aviv hotel were the first since August 7, when top security officials on both sides failed to agree on an Israeli plan to ease a military clampdown in Gaza as a test case before expanding it to the West Bank.

Palestinian security officials had demanded at least one West Bank city be included in the pilot plan and on Sunday, Ben-Eliezer said he was willing to consider expanding what he calls the “Gaza first” proposal to West Bank cities.

FIGHTING ERUPTS: Sharp clashes erupted in the northern West Bank as the Israeli army prepared for an initial pullback of forces.

A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was also shot dead by Israeli fire in Burqin near Jenin, as Israeli armour moved into a village.

Mahmud Amin Abu Oudeh, 13, was killed by gunfire from an Israeli tank in Birqin village, Palestinian hospital sources said.

His death came after more than a dozen Israeli tanks and eight jeeps pushed into the town and the nearby Jenin refugee camp in the late morning, sparking heavy exchanges of fire, Palestinian security sources said.

Further south in the city of Nablus, Palestinian medical sources said Saleh Ashiya was critically wounded after being hit by two bullets in the chest as a gun battle broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants.—AFP/Reuters