GAZA CITY: Israel has agreed in principle to return all the Palestinians it expelled from the West Bank, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said yesterday. Erekat said no time-table has been set for the repatriation.
About 55 Palestinians were expelled to the Gaza Strip and Europe. Some were exiled after a month-long siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002.
| Oh right, those guys, the respectful ones who trashed the church. |
Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, confirmed the deportees would be allowed to go home, but he had no time-table for their return. "We promise that they won't be arrested upon their return," Gissin said. 'We are freezing all proceedings against them as long as they refrain from terror activities."
| I hope they have the GPS devices implanted. |
The men spoke after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas met with deportees in Gaza City. "Today, we received good news that an agreement was reached with the Israeli side to allow us to return to our cities... each to his home, each to his city, within a short period of time," said Ghanem Sweilem, who was exiled from his home in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus more than two years ago.
*Hamas last night said it will honour a de facto truce it agreed upon with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas before he declared a ceasefire with Israel, but will wait to see how Israel conducts itself before deciding on an official cessation of hostilities. Its leader Mahmoud Zahar said after Hamas leaders met Abbas that the group is "committed to what is called 'quietness'" until it sees whether Israel stops military activities, halts its targeted assassinations, and discloses according to what criteria Palestinian prisoners will be released.
| The targeted assassination thing being most important to the Hamas bigs. |
Following his meeting with Hamas, Abbas proceeded to a meeting with the Islamic Jihad militant group. Before that meeting, a Jihad leader said the faction wanted to hear from Abbas whether there were "guarantees and obligations" before deciding about a cease-fire. |