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Leaders may meet Wednesday on Hebron deal

netanyahu & Ross January 1, 1997
Web posted at: 12:00 a.m. EST (0500 GMT)

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Although lower-level Palestinian and Israeli negotiators have yet to settle at least one key issue regarding Israeli troop redeployment in Hebron, U.S. officials Tuesday urged their leaders to go ahead and wrap up the Hebron deal by New Year's Day.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had set themselves a New Year's deadline for the agreement. But Palestinians are still asking Israel to commit to a timetable for troop withdrawal in West Bank rural areas.

Arafat

Under the autonomy accords signed by Netanyahu's predecessors, Israeli troops would have started pulling out of Hebron nine months ago, and would be beginning withdrawal from the West Bank rural areas this fall. Palestinians want Israel's government to honor the accords.

The two leaders will not meet Tuesday, but Netanyahu adviser David Bar-Illan said a meeting is expected Wednesday afternoon. Netanyahu's schedule is partially dependent on Knesset debates on his controversial austerity budget proposals.

U.S. envoy Dennis Ross said Tuesday night that he was having "good discussions with both leaders." Asked if the two sides were close, he replied, "We are not there yet."

Palestinian and Israeli negotiators were haggling over the few remaining points leading up to an agreement that could be initialed by the two leaders. Formal signing would take place after approval by the Israeli Cabinet and Knesset, and the Palestinian Council.

Hebron map

Hebron is the last town in the occupied territories still under Israeli rule, though several rural areas are still controlled by Israel.

The discussions have reportedly resolved differences over the types of firearms Palestinian police may carry, and the size of the buffer zone separating Palestinian neighborhoods from the small Jewish colony in downtown Hebron.

"The agreement on Hebron has been concluded," said Palestinian Maj. Gen. Abdel-Razak al-Yahya. "The problem is what comes after Hebron."

Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai said that the agreement "is very close."

"In my view, it's a matter of hours, a day or perhaps two," he said.

Sources say a meeting between Arafat and Netanyahu will be needed to finalize the deal on several fronts -- a Palestinian presence at the Ibrahimi Mosque, known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs; the dates of Israeli troop withdrawals from other parts of the West Bank; and release of about 5,000 Palestinians jailed in Israel.

Under the proposed agreement, Israeli troops will remain in 20 percent of Hebron to protect the 400 Jewish settlers who have chosen to live in the town of 100,000 Palestinians because Hebron is where the Biblical patriarch Abraham is buried. Abraham is revered by both Jews and Arabs as their common father.

Emotions are running high in Hebron over the pending deal. Israeli troops arrested 15 settlers as they attempted to break into an empty home in the Palestinian market area. The settlers are determined to lay claim to as much of Hebron as they can to expand the Jewish colony.

Palestinians resent what they see as the settlers' expansionist ambitions. Containing the settlers without removing them, and putting troops between the two sides, has been the focus of the Hebron agreement.

Jerusalem Bureau Chief Walter Rodgers and Reuters contributed to this report.

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