Israelis to leave WB towns
BBC News Online
Israel has agreed in talks to cede control of two West Bank towns - Jericho and Tulkarm - to Palestinian forces in the coming days. Israel's army will draw back from the town of Jericho first, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said. However, a meeting between him and Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz ended without agreement on when and how far the Israeli forces will withdraw. The talks form part of an effort to revive a stalled peace process. Contacts between Israeli and Palestinian officials were frozen after a suicide bomb attack by Palestinian militants in Tel Aviv killed four Israelis on 25 February. The meeting between Abbas and Mofaz, held at the Gaza Strip's Erez Checkpoint, is the most high-profile contact between the two sides since the Sharm al-Sheikh summit in Egypt last month. At the February summit, the two sides tentatively agreed that Israel will give Palestinian police control over five West Bank towns - Tulkarm, Jericho, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Bethlehem - to test their ability to curb militants.
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