Israel Delays Gaza Pullout

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday that he will delay a pullout from Gaza for a month, until mid-August, after an annual religious mourning period.

In an interview with Israel TV in advance of Israel's independence day this week, Sharon said the evacuation of settlers from the 21 Gaza settlements would be delayed until after a religious mourning period, which ends Aug. 14.

The original date for starting the removal of settlers from Gaza was July 25.

Sharon's announcement came as negotiators from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations gathered on the sidelines of Moscow's ceremonies marking the defeat of the Nazis to emphasize their commitment to the "road map" peace plan.

The so-called Quartet agreed that opportunity was at hand to end years of violence but that concrete steps must be taken by both the Israelis and the Palestinians.

"We will intensify our effort and we will expect the parties to intensify their efforts as well," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

Meanwhile, Palestinian militants and police exchanged gunfire Monday in two West Bank towns, defying Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' attempts to crack down on lawlessness and put peacemaking with Israel on a more solid footing.

However, Palestinian officials said they have made great strides in their plan to get militants off the streets without confrontations.

In the towns of Jericho and Tulkarem, handed to Palestinian control in March, all gunmen once wanted by Israel — a total of more than 200 — have joined the Palestinian security forces, said legislator Abdel Fattah Hemayel, who is in charge of finding jobs for the West Bank fugitives.

Israeli officials said the plan to absorb the gunmen into the security forces is not enough. They said the Palestinians must keep a promise to confiscate weapons. Hemayel said the gunmen's weapons are now under control of their commanders, and that they can no longer use them at will.

In the West Bank town of Tulkarem, a major mission awaited the 150 new recruits. Local security chiefs said they were mobilizing some 400 officers, including the former gunmen, to arrest the leader of a gang of car thieves and arms dealers. Before dawn Monday, the criminals had shot up the local police station.

The Palestinian security forces were severely weakened in more than four years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, allowing gunmen to control many areas of the West Bank. Since reaching a Feb. 8 cease-fire with Israel, Abbas has been trying to co-opt gunmen by offering them jobs and guaranteeing their safety.In Jenin, a militants' stronghold, dozens of Palestinian gunmen and police exchanged fire for a second day Monday. Mohammed Abu Arraj, the local leader of a faction with ties to Abbas' Fatah movement, said police shot him in the leg without provocation as he drove in Jenin, which is still under Israeli security control.

Police denied the allegation. But a dozen gunmen, responding to Abu Arraj's claims, opened fire on police in the streets, witnesses said.

Most shots were fired in the air, and hospital officials said there were no injuries.

Calm was restored after police reinforcements rushed to the scene from a nearby police station, and ordered people to leave the area. Abu Arraj and his men had a shootout with police on Sunday over his refusal to disarm before entering the local courthouse.

In the Gaza Strip late Sunday, two dozen masked Fatah gunmen briefly took over the local government building in Beit Lahiya, where Hamas militants won seven seats and Fatah six seats in recent local elections. They left at the request of Fatah officials.

Israel has demanded that Abbas disarm militants before it releases hundreds more Palestinian prisoners and turns over three additional West Bank towns to Palestinian control.

Israel halted the handover of West Bank towns last week, and on Sunday demanded that the Palestinian Authority crack down on militants before releasing other prisoners. The Palestinian government accused Israel of stalling and endangering moves to resume peacemaking.

While Palestinian police struggled to curb violence in their midst, Israel was trying to rein in its own extremists, putting a Jewish settler into detention for five months without charges or trial in a bid to pre-empt violence aimed at stopping Israel's Gaza pullout.

Israel frequently uses the practice, known as administrative detention, against Palestinians it considers a security threat, but it rarely employs it against Jews. But with Jewish extremists planning to resist the summer withdrawal, the army and politicians have discussed using the detentions to contain expected violence.

On Sunday, police arrested Neria Ofan, a 34-year-old West Bank settler, at an army roadblock, and said they plan to hold him until the end of September. Officials, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said Ofan was suspected of "involvement in terror."

Police found weapons and a sniper scope in his possession, security officials said. Ofan, who has been questioned by police in the past but never charged, was a sharpshooter in the army's undercover unit during his regular army service, they added.