Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in coordination Palestinians

Palestinian and Israeli preparations continued for the forthcoming Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, at a time when the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon stressed cling to settlements aggregations in the West Bank and not to be ready to negotiate concerning Jerusalem.

The spokesman for the Palestinian ministry of the interior Tawfiq Abu Khousa said that the Palestinian authority and Israel agreed to form two joint operations chambers in Gaza in order to supervise the Israeli withdrawal operation, and to start their work on Thursday.

Abu Khousa explained that one of the two chambers will be in the border Rafah crossing with Egypt, southern of Gaza, while the second will be in Beit Hanoun crossing ( Erez) to coordinate operations in Gaza and north Gaza.

While Israel has not confirmed this fact, a Palestinian security source said that the Palestinian security forces are prepared to impose a security belt around the Israeli settlements in Gaza as from Saturday, noting that this deployment falls in the course of coordination between Israel and the Palestinians, and complies with the security plan agreed upon between the two sides. Also in this regard, Palestinian security sources disclosed that some 7500 Palestinian security members including 5,000 members were gathered within "a special force" to preserve calm during and after the Israeli withdrawal operation.

These sources said that the main aim of the security deployment is to prevent the launch of missiles from the Palestinian side that will obstruct the withdrawal and cause an Israeli reaction.