ISRAEL: Political uncertainty continues to dog the Palestinian Authority with the new Prime Minister Mr Ahmed Korei, in his job less than a week, intimating that he would leave the post once the emergency cabinet sworn in last week completed its one-month term.
A group of Israeli opposition politicians and a number of prominent Palestinians, meanwhile, reached agreement yesterday on an unofficial draft of a peace initiative which offers solutions to the most divisive issues between the two sides.
On the ground, however, the warfare continued, with the Israeli army pulling most of its troops out of the southern Gaza Strip following two days of weapons searches which left eight Palestinians dead and, according to the United Nations, up to 1,500 homeless.
Speaking to reporters in Ramallah after a meeting of the ruling Fatah party's central committee, Mr Korei said that the emergency government, set up last week after a Palestinian suicide bombing which claimed 20 lives in the northern city of Haifa, "will continue for another 25 days and after that there will be a new government and a new prime minister also".
Like his predecessor Mr Mahmoud Abbas, the new prime minister has clashed bitterly with Mr Arafat over control of the Palestinian security forces. The Palestinian leader has consistently refused to relinquish control over a significant portion of the security apparatus, fearing it will undermine his authority.
Centralising the Palestinian security forces under a single command is viewed by the US as a prerequisite for a move by the Palestinian Authority against militant groups like Hamas. However, like Mr Abbas, who resigned in early September, in part due to his showdown with Mr Arafat, Mr Korei has also said he will not use force to confront militant groups.
Aides said yesterday, however, that with the termination of the emergency cabinet still several weeks away, a compromise might yet be found with Mr Arafat to prevent the resignation of the second Palestinian prime minister in two months.
The Israeli army yesterday pulled most of its troops out of the southern Gaza refugee camp of Rafah, where it had spent 48 hours engaged in firefights as it searched for tunnels used to smuggle weapons under the border from Egypt into Gaza.
The army said it destroyed three of the underground passages.
Palestinians said two children - a nine-year-old and a 12- year- old - were among the eight killed in the course of the operation. The army said the other six were gunmen. The UN said that homes destroyed by the army during the raid had left up to 1,500 people without a roof over their heads.
Mr Peter Hansen, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, told the BBC that "many houses have been completely demolished".
The Israeli and Palestinian politicians who met in Amman, Jordan, over the weekend, agreed to an unofficial memorandum for a permanent agreement, whereby the Palestinians would give up on the right of return for refugees and in return would get sovereignty over a contentious religious site in the Old City of Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary).
According to the memorandum, Israel would withdraw from most of the Occupied territories, but the Palestinians would agree to the creation of several large settlement blocs which included 75 per cent of the settlers.
The Israeli team included Oslo architect Mr Yossi Beilin and former Labor Party leader Mr Amram Mitzna. The Palestinian delegation included the Information Minister, Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, and a senior member of Mr Arafat's Fatah party. Both Mr Arafat and Mr Korei were made aware of the initiative.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Silvan Shalom, said the memorandum was another fatally flawed plan from the people who had engineered the shattered Oslo peace accords.