Senior Israeli military officials recommended that Israel should transfer security control over the northern West Bank city of Jenin to the Palestinian Authority before implementing disengagement, which is scheduled for mid-August.
After Israel transferred power over Jericho and Tulkarem to the P.A, it rejected to transfer power over additional Palestinian areas after claiming that the P.A security and police ‘failed to keep their promises over security arrangements”, according to the Israeli security.
Meanwhile, Israeli security officials told the Israeli minister of defense Shaul Mofaz, that it is important for the P.A to control Jenin area before Israel starts withdrawing from the neighboring settlements.
Israel plans to evacuate Qadim, Ganim, Homesh and Sa-Nur settlements near Jenin.
According to the Israeli online daily Haaretz, Israeli defense minister, Shaul Mofaz said that he favors handing over additional cities to the P.A “but if only it begins meeting its commitments”.
Also, Mofaz added that the P.A seems to have begun arriving to agreements with some Fatah fighters wanted by Israel; under these agreements the fighters will be rewarded positions in the P.A security after halting their activities, “apparently, the P.A is having difficulties in reaching such agreements with Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters”, Israeli security officials said.
Mofaz also visited Qadim settlement and met with about 100 settlers from Qadim and the nearby settlements of Ganim and Homesh; settlers of Sa-Nur settlement refused to attend saying that Mofaz “invited selected representatives from Sa-Nur and Homesh, while all settlers of Ganim and Qadim were allowed to attend”.
Among talks of withdrawal, five new settler families moved to Sa-Nur settlement on Wednesday, bringing the number of families to 38.
The five new families will live in tents since all houses in Sa-Nur are filled with settler families who came to appose disengagement.
Settlers who attended the meeting with Mofaz complained about the functioning of the government’s Disengagement Administration (Sela); a settler of Qadim settlement said that only seven or eight families received compensation “because Sela did not finish the paperwork”.
The settler added that some families signed contacts to live in Affula, but “still do not know if it is one of the cities that ‘will entitle additional grants”.
Other young settlers and soldiers who finished military service complained that Sela did not authorized any compensation for young people.
