Israeli forces break into Nablus, Toulkarem camps

Palestinian sources have expected that the Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas will meet in Gaza with the representatives of the Palestinian groups in order to discuss the possibility of renewing the truce and halting operations against Israel.

Abbas was due to head for Gaza yesterday to preside over a meeting for his government to be held today ( Wednesday) to discuss developments on the Palestinian and Israeli sides.

News reports in the occupied Palestinian territories said that political leaderships at the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements stressed "there are no reservations over meeting with the Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, despite the decision the Palestinian government had taken to halt contacts with the two movements following the suicide operation which took place last week."

Meantime, the US renewed its confirmation on the need that the Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas supervise all security sectors in the Palestinian territories. This, however, came after the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had appointed Maj. Gen. Jibril al-Rajjoub his advisor for national security with the aim to re-organize the Palestinian security forces. The spokesman for the US State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said that Washington considers this as necessary to attain a progress for the Roadmap. Nevertheless, he refused to comment directly on appointing al-Rajjoub as an advisor for Arafat.

Appointing al-Rajjoub constitutes a new development in the arising differences between Arafat and Abbas.