Rice meets Palestinians on Gaza pullout
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-23 16:26

MILITANT CHALLENGE

Abbas has pledged to do all he can to ensure calm when Israel withdraws from the 21 Gaza Strip settlements and four of the 120 in the West Bank, but his forces face a challenge from powerful militant groups like Hamas.

Abbas favours persuasion to win over the militants, who agreed to respect the truce, rather than crushing the groups as Israel wants.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (L) waves upon her arrival at the Palestinian Authority headquarters as Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa (C) looks on in the West Bank city of Ramallah July 23, 2005. Rice began her Middle East mission, her third to the region this year, urging Israel and the Palestinians to get back to coordinating the mid-August withdrawal from occupied Gaza, which Washington hopes will help revive stalled peace moves.[Reuters]

But police trying to stop rocket fire at Israel fought with militants this week in the worst internal clashes for years. The Palestinians eventually agreed to stop fighting each other while Israel put an offensive on hold as rocket attacks ebbed.

Abbas said he would tell Rice "I intend to impose the rule of law."

Sharon has vowed to carry out the Gaza withdrawal as a way to "disengage" from conflict with the Palestinians even if there are militant attacks, but he has threatened to use massive force to prevent them if Abbas does not.

Sharon's opponents on the far right say the withdrawal will reward the militants, who themselves claim it as a victory for their uprising. Religious ultranationalists also see land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war as a gift from God.

While Palestinians welcome the first withdrawal from settlements on land they seek for a state, they also fear Israel is using the plan as a cover for strengthening its hold on the West Bank rather than a step to peace.

Some 8,500 settlers would leave Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians, but only a few hundred of more than 230,000 settlers will be removed from the West Bank where they live alongside 2.4 million Palestinians.

The United States wants the Gaza pullout to help revive negotiations on a "road map" for a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. Israel Radio said it was possible Rice could return to the Middle East again before the withdrawal starts.

Her Israeli-Palestinian agenda was interrupted on Friday by a surprise trip to Beirut, the highest-level U.S. visit since Syria ended its 29-year military presence two months ago.

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