Israeli, Palestinian officials meeting to plan for summit

JERUSALEM — Israeli and Palestinian officials are working to set up a meeting between their prime ministers this week aimed at renewing peace efforts, the chief Palestinian negotiator said Saturday.

Officials have been trying for several weeks to arrange a summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qureia. The meeting would be the first such high-level encounter in months.

Both sides have expressed a desire to meet to rejuvenate efforts to implement the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan, which envisions an immediate end to violence and the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.

On Thursday, Sharon said that if the Palestinians did not make serious peace moves in the next few months, Israel would impose its own boundary on them. Palestinians say only a negotiated agreement can bring peace, worried unilateral Israeli action would leave them with far less land than they want for a future state.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Saturday he and other Palestinian officials planned to meet in the next two days with Dov Weisglass, the chief of Sharon’s office, to prepare for the summit, the first between the two leaders since Qureia took office in October.

A senior Israeli official said the date and location of the meeting between the prime ministers would become clearer soon but that "one can expect a meeting during (the) week."

Qureia has said he would only agree to the meeting if Sharon showed a willingness to compromise on a series of contentious issues, including the construction of a security barrier that dips deep into the West Bank.

Sharon has refused to stop building the barrier, but has said Israel planned to ease closures, curfews and other restrictions on Palestinians.

Violence in the West Bank continued Saturday as Palestinian gunmen killed a man accused of collaborating with Israeli security forces. The 23-year-old man was shot in the head at close range in the town of Qalqiliya, emergency services officials said.

Earlier, troops arrested 16 wanted Palestinians in a series of overnight raids in five villages north of the city of Ramallah, Israeli military sources said.

Troops also entered the Balata refugee camp about 7:30 a.m. Saturday and began conducting house-to-house searches. The soldiers used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of stone throwers, the Israeli military and Palestinian witnesses said. Five people were slightly injured and several others were detained, witnesses said.

Some Palestinians threw firebombs at the troops, who responded by shooting one of those responsible in the leg, the Israeli military source said.

Soldiers also shot tear gas into a girls’ school in the camp, located just outside the West Bank town of Nablus, witnesses said. The military denied firing tear gas into any buildings during the raid.

The military said the incursion was a routine operation in search of militants and weapons.

Also Saturday, a 32-year-old Palestinian man hospitalized since being wounded in clashes with Israeli troops in February 2002 died of his injuries, hospital officials in Qalqiliya said.