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Israeli tanks pushed into central Gaza early Monday, hours before Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was to ask his parliament to outlaw suicide bombings and reaffirm a commitment to peace with Israel.
A draft copy of the speech Arafat was to make at a key meeting of the Palestinian parliament Monday was given to The Associated Press by his office. It said that the world was waiting for a clear signal the Palestinians saw peaceful negotiations as the way to resolve their dispute with Israel.
"The Palestinian people are standing against all types of terrorism, whether it is state terror or individual terror," the text said. "The Palestinian Legislative Council has to protect Palestinian national interests through final recognition of the state of Israel and the right of its people to live in peace and security."
The speech also argued that Palestinian bomb attacks gave Israel justification for harsh retaliation.
"Suicide attacks against Israeli civilians in buses, restaurants, cafes and universities give the Israeli government the ability to hide its crimes," the draft said.
Violence continued Sunday ahead of the parliamentary session in the West Bank. Palestinian security officials said two people were killed by Israeli tank fire in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, as Israeli forces advanced along the main Gaza road, encircling three refugee camps.
Israeli military sources said troops identified two men on foot moving under cover of darkness toward the fence between Israeli and Palestinian territory and opened fire.
Residents of the Bourej camp said soldiers ordered families out of a two-story house where a suspected militant lived and blew up the building. The militant has been underground for several months, the residents said.
Troops searched the Nusseirat camp, across the main highway from Bourej, residents said, and also surrounded the nearby Mughazi camp. Some exchanges of fire were heard, but no casualties were reported.
Israeli military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the operation in Gaza was local, not an attempt to reoccupy the area. When the mission was completed, the soldiers would withdraw, he said.
The Palestinian Security Directorate called the military move "dangerous escalation" and an Israeli attempt to "sabotage all efforts by the Palestinian Authority to implement the understanding" to ease tensions in Gaza by turning areas back to Palestinian control.
The 88-seat Palestinian assembly in its meeting Monday was to discuss Palestinian elections demanded by Israel and the United States as part of a shakeup of the Palestinian Authority.
"The government program will be submitted in a speech given by President Arafat," Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told Israeli TV on Sunday. "Then there will be on the agenda also the Palestinian election law and programs of reform."
Israeli officials say they are looking for concrete deeds that go beyond statements.
"We expect actions to end the violence," said Yoram Dori, an adviser to Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
Israeli authorities barred 12 Palestinian lawmakers from traveling from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank to attend a parliamentary session discussing democratic reforms.
Deputy speaker Ibrahim Abu Najr said that most of the 34 Gaza members of the Palestinian parliament will participate in the session through a video conferencing system from Gaza.
But they will not attend the session in person as an act of solidarity with those denied permission to leave the fenced-off Gaza Strip.
The legislators will discuss procedures for holding presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections due by January 2003. The voting is seen as integral to promised Palestinian reforms to inject checks and balances into a regime which has so far been Arafat's sole fiefdom.
Palestinian officials said some lawmakers want to raise the idea of electing a prime minister who would actively head the government, while Arafat, as president, became titular head of state with little or no executive power.
That idea has been suggested by the United States and Israel but the Palestinians have not endorsed it.
A Western diplomat close to the Palestinian Authority said the issue might not be on Monday's agenda, as those who back the idea prefer to pursue it behind the scenes rather than be seen as mounting an open challenge to Arafat's authority.
(China Daily September 9, 2002)
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