Despite the continuing violence, the security cabinet decided on Friday to ease some of the restrictions on the Arab population - including the withdrawal of IDF forces from some of their current positions such as the Abu Sneineh hills in Hevron. Other gestures include the expansion of PA fishing rights off the northern Gaza coast, the entry of gasoline, and the removal of some checkpoints and barricades.
Prime Minister Sharon told the cabinet that an agreement has been reached with PA Preventive Security chief Jibril Rajoub, whose men will take the IDF\'s place in Abu Sneineh and will take responsibility that no shots are fired anywhere in Hevron. Sharon said that Rajoub promised that if there is \"even one shot\" anywhere in Hevron, he, Rajoub, would agree to the IDF\'s return to Abu Sneineh and Haret A-Sheikh. The details of these two conditions - quiet ensured by the PA, and the understanding that the IDF will return if shooting resumes - are to be finalized at a joint security meeting this evening.
Palestinian terrorists have been shooting almost non-stop from the Abu Sneineh and Haret A-Sheikh hills towards the Jewish homes below them for almost the past year; ten-month-old Shalhevet Pass was murdered, and several others were wounded, in these attacks.
It should be noted that a similar Israeli take-over, withdrawal, and threat-to-return was carried out by the IDF in Beit Jala, near the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, six weeks ago - and the area has been quiet ever since. However, Minister Shlomo Benizri (Shas) noted that there are significant differences between the Beit Jala/Gilo and the Abu Sneineh/Avraham Avinu situations. In the former, he said, the distance between Palestinian positions and Gilo is such that precision Palestinian sniper attacks are not possible, while between Abu Sneineh and Hevron\'s Jewish neighborhoods, precision Palestinian sniping is an easy task.
Prime Minister Sharon told the cabinet that an agreement has been reached with PA Preventive Security chief Jibril Rajoub, whose men will take the IDF\'s place in Abu Sneineh and will take responsibility that no shots are fired anywhere in Hevron. Sharon said that Rajoub promised that if there is \"even one shot\" anywhere in Hevron, he, Rajoub, would agree to the IDF\'s return to Abu Sneineh and Haret A-Sheikh. The details of these two conditions - quiet ensured by the PA, and the understanding that the IDF will return if shooting resumes - are to be finalized at a joint security meeting this evening.
Palestinian terrorists have been shooting almost non-stop from the Abu Sneineh and Haret A-Sheikh hills towards the Jewish homes below them for almost the past year; ten-month-old Shalhevet Pass was murdered, and several others were wounded, in these attacks.
It should be noted that a similar Israeli take-over, withdrawal, and threat-to-return was carried out by the IDF in Beit Jala, near the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, six weeks ago - and the area has been quiet ever since. However, Minister Shlomo Benizri (Shas) noted that there are significant differences between the Beit Jala/Gilo and the Abu Sneineh/Avraham Avinu situations. In the former, he said, the distance between Palestinian positions and Gilo is such that precision Palestinian sniper attacks are not possible, while between Abu Sneineh and Hevron\'s Jewish neighborhoods, precision Palestinian sniping is an easy task.