Mideast Jockeying For Position

Israeli troops swept into the West Bank town of Jenin early Friday, making arrests and trading gunfire with militants, Palestinian witnesses said.

Also Friday, Israel said it would try to ease restrictions on Palestinians at security checkpoints to avert a mounting humanitarian crisis.

The moves came a day after the Palestinian premier warned that if Israel unilaterally imposed a new boundary with the West Bank he would push for a single Arab-Jewish state — a move that could spell disaster for Israel.

Meanwhile, a top member of Israel's parliament is calling a Hamas statement that it could accept a temporary peace with Israel "interesting," but says he wants to see Hamas halt its terror activities first.

On Wednesday, Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said that the movement would agree to a "temporary peace" with Israel. The conditions he set were a return to Israel's pre-1967 borders, the evacuation of settlements in Palestinian territories, and the resettlement of all the Palestinian refugees inside Israel.

It's a move in the right direction, but "what's even more important is a change in behavior," said Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Comittee.

A single country including Gaza, the West Bank and Israel would mean that the Jewish state would soon have an Arab majority. That would force Israel to choose between giving Palestinians the right to vote, and risk losing the country's Jewish character, or becoming a minority-ruled country.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last month that he would order unilateral separation from the Palestinian areas if peace talks do not show progress in the coming months.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told The Associated Press on Thursday that such unilateral moves would make the drive for a Palestinian state a "meaningless slogan."

"If the situation continues as it is now we will go for the one-state solution," he said.

Qureia said the one-state idea is his own idea, not official policy, though he said Palestinians suggested it shortly after Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war.

Secretary of State Colin Powell rejected the idea of a single state on Thursday, saying only a two-country solution would work.

For years, Israeli doves have cited the "demographic issue" in their calls for Israel to relinquish control of all or most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of a peace treaty.

About 3.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza, in addition to 1.2 million Arab citizens of Israel. About 5.5 million Jews live in Israel.

The past decade of Israel-Palestinian peace efforts has always been based on a two-state solution. The latest peace plan — the U.S.-backed "road map" — leads to a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza by 2005. Abandoning that concept could throw Mideast politics into turmoil.

In the West Bank raids, the army arrested at least 15 Palestinians in the town of Jenin and two members of the militant Islamic Jihad in a nearby village, witnesses said.

The army, however, said it had arrested six people in Jenin.

Witnesses said more than 25 armored vehicles entered the refugee camp in the town and there were sporadic exchanges of fire between gunmen and troops, but no casualties were reported.

Among those detained were Attar Abu Remeli, a local leader from Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah party and two militants from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militia loosely affiliated to Fatah.

Also arrested was the father and four brothers of a man who carried out a suicide bombing two years ago, witnesses said.

In conjunction with continued raids against suspected Palestinian militants, Israel said it would try to ease conditions for the Palestinian population, in particular at roadblocks and checkpoints.

"We will try wherever possible to differentiate between the treatment of the civilian population and the war on terror," Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim told Israel Radio.

The steps were decided upon at an emergency meeting of Israeli security heads held Thursday to asses the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories.

The situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is bordering on chaos and anarchy, a senior security official said speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that the meeting was apparently called in response to mounting international pressure on Israel.

New steps to be implemented in coming days include stationing at least one officer and an Arabic speaking soldier at each checkpoint to reduce friction.

Also, officers in charge of the checkpoints will be given more authority to allow Palestinians to pass through checkpoints. Border crossings from Palestinian areas into neighboring Jordan and Egypt would also stay open for longer hours.

Palestinians charge that the dozens of checkpoints set up during the more-than three years of violence have devastated their economy and caused many severe hardships.

Israel says the checkpoints help stop suicide bombers entering the country.