Saturday, May 17, killing an Israeli men just hours before an Israeli-Palestinian peace summit was about to begin, military officials said.
The violence underscored the difficulties surrounding the United States sponsored Roadmap for Peace for the Middle East to be discussed during high level talks after the Jewish Sabbath at Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s residence in Jerusalem.
In statements to reporters, Israel’s military said the attacker had "aroused the suspicion of Israeli soldiers on patrol and was running away from them when he set off the blast."
A group of about 500 Jewish settlers live in Hebron in small, protected enclaves among a much larger Palestinian population.
FIRST EVER MEETING
It was not immediately clear how the latest attack would effect the first ever meeting between Sharon and his recently elected Palestinian counterpart Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told reporters Abbas would try to convince Sharon to accept the "road map "as it is, before the Israeli prime minister leaves Sunday for talks in Washington with President Bush, the Voice of America (VOA) said.
Under the peace plan, drawn by the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, the 31-month Palestinian uprising (Intifada) "Israeli occupation" must end, and it foresees a Palestinian state alongside Israel by end of 2005.
Saturday’s talks came amid a Palestinian political crisis prompted by the resignation of long-time senior peace negotiator Saeb Erekat a close ally of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian prime minister accepted Erakat’s resignation during a cabinet meeting Saturday, in Gaza City, VOA reported.
AMERICAN PRESSURE
Abbas is under American and Israeli pressure to further isolate Arafat and crack down against militant groups. The Palestinian Authority has reportedly begun paying salaries to members of terrorist organizations in an attempt to persuade them to lay down their weapons.
Members of the armed wing of Fatah, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, have begun receiving monthly salaries of 200 dollars from the new Palestinian cabinet, according to The Jerusalem Post newspaper said. The claim could not be independently verified.
However the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, (ICEJ) which supports Israel, noted that "the salaries might not pay-off as the Cabinet may have intended though." An Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader, Malek Jallad, has reportedly said that he and his men would not give up their weapons.
