Israel Agrees to Hebron Withdrawal, Officials Say

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators said they had completed their work Tuesday on an agreement for Israel’s withdrawal from most of the West Bank city of Hebron and that another meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat was required to close a deal.

Officials from both sides said they hoped the two leaders would meet tonight at the Erez border crossing, but after an all-night budget fight in parliament, Netanyahu said early today that a summit had yet to be scheduled.

U.S. mediator Dennis Ross, who has shuttled between Washington and the Middle East for months to forge an agreement, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s top advisor, Ossama Baaz, are expected to oversee a signing ceremony after a Netanyahu-Arafat summit.

“All of the elements of a deal are on the table, but they await the final approval of the leaders of both [sides],” confirmed a U.S. official familiar with the negotiations.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said they had finalized the terms for an Israeli redeployment from about 80% of Hebron, with the city’s Jewish enclaves and the Cave of the Patriarchs--a site holy to Jews and Muslims--remaining under Israeli protection.

Ross continued to meet separately with Netanyahu and Arafat on a few outstanding issues, most of them regarding further compliance with the framework Oslo peace accords of 1993.

“The agreement on Hebron has been concluded,” said Abdel Razak Yahyah, a member of the Palestinian negotiating team. “The problem is what comes after Hebron. We are still discussing other outstanding issues such as further redeployments and [the release of Palestinian] prisoners.”

One issue that could still stymie a signing is the Palestinian demand that an Israeli-Palestinian mobile military unit be allowed to patrol near the Cave of the Patriarchs, which Arabs call the Ibrahim mosque. Israel does not want Palestinian police near the site, believed to be the burial place of the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Ross tried to get the two leaders to meet and initial an agreement Tuesday night. Arafat reportedly agreed, but Netanyahu was tied up in parliament seeking to ensure that the right-wing and religious parties in his government coalition would vote for his 1997 austerity budget.

The prime minister apparently wanted to have the budget in his pocket before signing a Hebron agreement, which seven of his 18 Cabinet members already have said they will not support.

Netanyahu’s Likud Party has long opposed trading captured land for peace with the Palestinians, arguing that this endangers Israeli security. The religious parties, in particular, do not want to give up Hebron, the holiest city to Jews after Jerusalem. And Hebron’s Jewish settlers adamantly oppose an Israeli redeployment from the city, the last in the West Bank under Israeli control.

Under the interim peace agreement that the previous, Labor government signed with the Palestinians in September 1995, Hebron was to have been granted self-rule in March after six other West Bank cities were handed over to the Palestinian Authority.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres delayed the redeployment after a series of suicide bombings in Israel that left more than 60 people dead, and then he lost the Israeli national elections to Netanyahu in May. The new prime minister demanded changes that he said would provide better protection for the 450 Jews who live in Hebron amid about 100,000 Palestinians. Mutual distrust and an armed clash between Palestinian police and Israeli soldiers in September bogged down the negotiations.

In the end, Netanyahu’s Hebron accord is more detailed than the one in the interim agreement, but it apparently differs little in substance.

Israeli officials say the accord calls for a buffer zone around the Jewish enclaves in which Palestinian police will be restricted to carrying short-range weapons.

It establishes that a joint Israeli-Palestinian unit will patrol the high ground overlooking the Jewish neighborhoods and that Palestinians will be prevented from surrounding the Jewish areas with high buildings.

Shuhada Street, which runs from the center of Hebron past a Jewish housing complex to the Arab market next to another Jewish enclave, will be opened gradually over about four months.

An American letter is to accompany the Hebron accord, guaranteeing that both sides will continue to comply with the broader peace accords. The details of this letter are what remain for Netanyahu and Arafat to agree on.

The Palestinians want Israel to commit to dates for further redeployments and for a release of prisoners. They also want Israel to fulfill its promise to allow a Palestinian airport to open in the Gaza Strip and to open a road linking the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip and West Bank autonomous areas.

Netanyahu wants Arafat to commit to disarming terrorists, cease all Palestinian Authority activities in Jerusalem and extradite wanted prisoners to Israel.