Agence France Presse  --  Arab News

RAMALLAH, West Bank, 13 April 2004 — The Palestinian prime minister warned the United States yesterday against giving his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon, on a visit to Washington this week, any guarantees detrimental to the Palestinians. “We will not accept any guarantee or promise which is to our detriment from any party, even the United States,” Ahmed Qorei told reporters after the weekly Palestinian Cabinet meeting in this West Bank city.

Sharon is due to hold talks with US President George W. Bush at the White House tomorrow when he will present his controversial “disengagement plan”, which includes an evacuation from all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. Israeli media reports have said that the United States will in return not force the Israelis to withdraw to the pre-1967 borders as demanded by the Palestinians.

“We are not against Israeli retreats but what is proposed in Gaza must be part of an overall framework, which includes the end of the occupation, and is accompanied by a retreat from the West Bank as is laid down by the ‘road map’ and other agreements,” he said.

Qorei was referring to the floundering internationally backed peace plan which envisages the creation of a Palestinian state next year. The premier also called for the UN Security Council to adopt a new resolution “stipulating that the retreat from Gaza is included in the framework of international resolutions on the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

Sharon has said that he has no option but to implement unilateral measures such as the Gaza pullout in the absence of any Palestinian partner in the peace process, accusing Qorei of failing to crack down on anti-Israeli militants. Qorei said that he had been given assurances at a meeting with three senior US envoys at the beginning of the month that “no measures will be taken which prejudice a final status agreement.”

Two Palestinians were killed yesterday as Israeli forces foiled a joint attack by the three main Palestinian armed factions on a Jewish settlement in the northern Gaza Strip, sources on both sides said in Gaza City. The Israeli military initially said they had found three bodies after a lengthy armed exchange on the outskirts of Netzarim but later revised the number down to just one. “Searches have finished. We have found only one body,” said a spokeswoman.

Sources within the Palestinian ambulance service later said that they had recovered another body just outside Netzarim. The identity of the two slain militants was not immediately clear.

In a joint statement issued earlier in Gaza City, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said three “martyrs” had taken part in the raid, engaging Israeli forces in “an armed exchange which lasted 30 minutes”.

Israeli security forces have been on a heightened state of alert during the Passover holiday, which ended yesterday, with Palestinian factions pledging to avenge the assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in an Israeli air raid three weeks ago.

A senior Israeli source serving in Gaza said that the forces had been braced for an attack but the gunmen had sought to take advantage of foggy overnight conditions, infiltrating the settlement from the north and west.

“We were ready for them and that’s why we succeeded in preventing this terrorist attack,” the officer told AFP. “It was a night with thick fog and they took advantage. Their goal was to go inside the community and kill as many people as possible on a Jewish holiday.”

Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday were to discuss embattled efforts to revive the Middle East peace process and spread reforms in the region amid the deadly crisis in Iraq.

Bush hosted Mubarak at his beloved Texas ranch — a sought-for honor he has given just a few world leaders — as he opened a busy week slated to include talks with Sharon and Tony Blair of Britain.

The meeting in Crawford, Texas, to be capped by an 11:45 a.m. (1645 GMT) press event, came after weeks of escalating violence pitting Iraqi insurgents against US-led forces and ahead of Israel’s controversial plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip. The trip was Mubarak’s first to the United States since the war in Iraq.