GAZA - Palestinian security forces have announced practical steps to implement a ceasefire promised by President Yasser Arafat after a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv raised the spectre of strong Israeli retaliation.
But it was unclear today if a wide array of Palestinian factions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would lay down their arms after eight months of fighting against Israel.
Senior Palestinian officials said security chiefs in Arafat's Palestinian Authority had met on yesterday and ordered their forces to take "practical, direct, urgent and immediate" action to put the ceasefire into effect.
There was no immediate Israeli reaction to the announcement, which did not meet a key Israeli demand - the arrest by Arafat's forces of Muslim militants behind attacks that have rocked the Jewish state.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon planned to hold security consultations early on Sunday before the weekly meeting of his full cabinet.
After a security cabinet meeting on Saturday, Israeli officials said Arafat only had a few hours to make good on his ceasefire promise before possible Israeli military action.
"A decision was taken tonight and joint patrols, made up of all Palestinian security agencies, were set up to monitor and patrol the points of friction, to implement the decision in accordance with the higher national interest of the Palestinian people," a top security official in Gaza told Reuters.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell had been in touch with Arafat and Sharon earlier in day on ways to ease tensions following the suicide bombing that killed 19 people and wounded more than 90 in Tel Aviv on Friday, officials from both sides said.
At a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Arafat said he would do his utmost to achieve a ceasefire, a key recommendation by a US-led committee that looked into ways to end the violence and return to peacemaking.
Israeli officials had said they were sceptical Arafat would take concrete steps to back up his promises and fend off a military reprisal for the Tel Aviv blast, the deadliest attack in Israel since the Palestinian uprising began in September.
"We exerted and we will now exert our utmost efforts to stop the bloodshed of our people and the Israeli people and to do all that is needed to achieve an immediate and unconditional, real and effective ceasefire," Arafat said.
Ahmed Helles, secretary general of Arafat's Fatah faction in the Gaza Strip, said the movement "was aware of the international pressure on the Palestinian Authority" to stop the blood-letting.
He told Reuters that Palestinian factions, including Islamic groups opposed to any compromise with Israel, would meet on Sunday to discuss the ceasefire decision.
But Marwan Barghouthi, a prominent Fatah official in the West Bank, vowed: "The Intifada (uprising) and resistance will continue as long as one Jewish settler and one Israeli soldier remains on our occupied land."
Palestinians evacuated public buildings in the West Bank city of Nablus, fearing an air strike, and witnesses said many UN staff based in Gaza packed hurriedly and left for Israel.
Fatah declared a state of alert for possible Israeli attacks.
- REUTERS
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Palestinians announce ceasefire steps
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