February 12, 2002
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, has unveiled details of a peace plan he has been working on with the Palestinian parliament speaker, Ahmed Qureia.
But the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, and his Defence Minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, have already dismissed the plan, which would lead to Palestinian statehood within a year.
Mr Ben-Eliezer himself has warned that Israel might establish what it calls security zones in Palestinian-controlled areas if Palestinian militants launch more Qassam-2 rockets, which they fired for the first time on Sunday. In continuing retaliation, Israeli forces made an incursion in the West Bank on Tuesday morning, killing one Palestinian man.
Mutual recognition
Mr Peres's plan has three stages - first a ceasefire, then mutual recognition between Israel and a Palestinian state and finally agreement on the borders of the new state.
He said he envisaged negotiations on the terms of Palestinian statehood to take a year, and implementation a further 12 months. "We will recognise a Palestinian state, they will recognise the state of Israel," Mr Peres told Israel Radio.
He said that at first, the state would include territory already under full or partial control of the Palestinian Authority - about two-thirds of the Gaza Strip and 40% of the West Bank. The plan has not yet been approved by the Labor Party, but Mr Peres says he is confident his party will back him.
According to the agreement, Palestinian militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which reject any peace deal with Israel, would be disbanded. Meanwhile the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has urged all sides in the Middle East to return to the negotiating table in a bid to break the cycle of violence there.
Tuesday's incursion
The Israeli army's incursion into the West Bank town of Halhoul saw the death of a Palestinian police officer in an exchange of fire. Two alleged Palestinian militants - one a member of Islamic Jihad and the other from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction - were arrested in what the Israeli army described as an "anti-terrorist operation".
Palestinian officials said three buildings had been destroyed in Halhoul, including a foundry, which correspondents say may have been targeted as a suspected munitions factory. The incursion followed criticism of Israel from the United States and the United Nations for a number of air strikes on Gaza.
Monday's raids, in which more than 50 people were injured, were described by the US State Department as "counterproductive". "We're seriously concerned about Israeli attacks over the past several days on Palestinian Authority facilities, particularly in areas that are heavily populated by civilians," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Rocket fears
But Mr Boucher also had harsh words about Sunday's firing of a Qassam-2 rocket, manufactured by the Islamic militant group Hamas, into Israel. He said that Mr Arafat should "act now to halt this kind of dangerous and provocative escalation".
The Israeli army says the Qassam-2 missiles have a range of up to eight kilometres and can carry five kilogrammes of explosives. The BBC's Barbara Plett says these are primitive and inaccurate weapons, which nevertheless represent for Israel a serious escalation in the conflict.
The reason, says our correspondent, is that they have the ability to spread panic. If Hamas launches Qassam-2s from the West Bank it could strike at the heart of Israeli population centres. And any improved version might be able to strike the airport.
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