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CNN Live At Daybreak

Israeli, Palestinian Officials Reach Some Agreement

Aired August 19, 2002 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Israeli and Palestinian security officials have apparently come to some sort of agreement on a plan for Israeli troops to withdraw from Bethlehem and from parts of the Gaza Strip.
With details of the planned withdrawal, CNN's Jerrold Kessel, who is live in Jerusalem -- good morning, Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

A glimmer of hope, is the way the Israelis are designating this accord. An important agreement, the way the Palestinians are designating it. Whether it is a significant turning point in this two year conflict it's too early to tell. But certainly there was a change in atmosphere and that was reflected very much at the meeting last night at a Tel Aviv hotel, where the two sides, under Israel's defense minister, Mr. Ben Eliezer, and the Palestinian interior minister, General Ichuvez (ph), and Yasser Arafat's personal security adviser Mohammed Dahlan met for four hours and then came out with this tentative understanding, which could change around things that they've been devolving over the last several months.

And the situation could be seen in what the -- scenes that we saw this morning with the Israeli tank beginning to move out of Bethlehem, or at least change location there. And that could be the trend for the future if this accord takes shape and takes hold, first in Gaza and here also in Bethlehem on the West Bank, where Israeli troops would withdraw from their positions within the Palestinian town.

Also, Israel eased the military restrictions and the onerous restrictions on Palestinian civilians in those designated areas, like at checkpoints. And all this in return, if the Palestinian Authority security forces take responsibility for continuing to keep the calm in that designated area and to reduce and ease and completely eradicate the violence emanating from there. Then it could spread to other areas.

So there is some hope coming out of this, but already, even as the two side get under way and try to implement this first phase of the agreement in the next 24 hours, a spokesman for Prime Minister Sharon is warning that even though they want this to succeed, Israel's war on terror, as it's been described, will not cease and the focus also on the radical Islamic groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who the first word from spokesmen from them are saying they won't be bound by this tentative agreement and understanding and that they mean to continue the attacks on Israel. They say the agreement is simply an Israeli way to try to undermine the Palestinian intifada. Early days yet. Some hope that perhaps this could be a new trend -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We hope so.

Jerrold Kessel reporting live from Jerusalem this morning.

Thank you.

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