Burns discusses with Arafat reforms, Israel arrests 25 Palestinians, 15 wounded in confrontations

The Israeli occupation forces on Thursday stormed into several Palestinian cities, villages and camps in the West Bank and Gaza, Hebron, Faroun, Rafah, Khan Younis and Jenin and imposed curfew at the Shaafat and Anata camps to the north of Jerusalem, while Bethlehem is still under the Israeli curfew for the fourth running days. These breaking in operations by the Israelis resulted in arresting more than 15 Palestinians in various Palestinian areas while 15 Palestinians were wounded only in Rafah.

In the political field, the chairman of the political authority Yasser Arafat discussed during his meeting with the US under secretary of state William Burns in Ramallah latest developments in the Palestinian territories.

Following the meeting, Burns said that his mission concentrates on three main points which are: halting what he called violence, resuming negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides and thirdly following up the reforms operations in the Palestinian authority.

The Israeli radio said on Thursday that it is expected that Burns will meet today morning with the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and with his foreign minister Shimon Peres and will meet on Sunday with the Israeli defense minister Benjamin Bin Aliazer.

The Palestinian official in charge of the local rule in the Palestinian authority Saeb Oreikat said that he had submitted to the Palestinian legislative council a project to amend the law provided for the Palestinian local commissions of 1996. Oreikat urged the Palestinian legislative council on the need to accelerate discussions of these amendments and to take appropriate decisions regarding them.

Worthy mentioning that an international guidance committee composed of the US, the European Union, Canada, Japan and the Norway is dealing with the Palestinians to support the Palestinian local elections.