IDF wraps up Wye's first stage today

By ARIEH O'SULLIVAN

The bulk of the IDF pullout in the area took place on Friday morning as Israel withdrew from 500 square kilometers, which included 28 towns and villages now under the complete control of the Palestinian Authority.

In addition, seven villages were transferred from Area C to B (Palestinian civil control and joint security control).

Immediately after a delayed formal map-signing ceremony on the outskirts of Jenin, the IDF began laying out dozens of painted cement blocks demarcating the new zones, and Palestinian police began fanning out to their new positions.

After a break for Shabbat, IDF troops resumed the task last night and were expected to finish by today.

This morning Civil Admin-istration heads are to meet in Beit El to hand over authority in 15 spheres - including communications, electricity, taxation, water, transportation and economy, in the villages being transferred from Area C to B.

The land compromises two percent of the West Bank and includes three nature reserves and a number of sites holy to both Moslems and Jews.

"This closes the first stage of the handover of authority," said Shlomo Dror, spokesman for the Coordinator of Activities in the Territories. "Now we are preparing for the next stage."

According to the Wye agreement, Israel is to hand over an additional 5% of Area C on December 14 and a further 6% at the end of January.

At the end of the interim stage of the peace process, the Palestinians are to be in joint or sole jurisdiction of about 40% of the West Bank.

On Friday, there was a threat of a crisis when the IDF presented maps to the Palestinians with changes made during a meeting the night before with settlers.

PA Chairman Yasser Arafat refused to allow Gen. Haj Ismail Jaber, commander of PA forces in the West Bank, to sign the maps without first seeing the changes.

OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon immediately ordered a helicopter, and the two flew directly to Arafat in Hebron.

Ya'alon explained the minute changes and said the area withheld would be made up in the next withdrawals.

Arafat gave his approval, and Ya'alon and Jaber returned to Jenin for the formal map-signing ceremony.

Jenin Governor Zuhair Manasra said the IDF "will tell its troops that they can no longer go into these areas which they have been patrolling."

As opposed to the gunshooting entrance of Palestinian paramilitary forces into villages vacated by the IDF, the Israeli side is interested in the redeployment being seen as a "virtual withdrawal" - more of a signing-of-maps ceremony than the actual withdrawal from land.

"In the territory returned there are no [military] installations, no Israeli property and the normal, everyday life of the residents and their roads has not changed," said Brig.-Gen. Itzik Eitan, commander of IDF forces in Judea and Samaria, shortly after the withdrawal started Friday morning. "There is no reason to change anything either in their lives or in the routine instructions for the region."

He repeatedly said settlers had no reason to change anything.

"The settlers need to know in general the changes in the territory. As far as they are concerned there are no changes in their driving habits or in running their daily lives. For them, there is no change in the areas where they drove beforehand," Eitan told reporters. "We will do whatever is necessary to strengthen security, protect their well-being and give them all the defense necessary to live normal lives."

The IDF has increased forces during the withdrawal period, but Eitan said it had no concrete warnings of specific attacks planned by Islamic extremists.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai has denied that the residents of Ganim and Kadim were being used as bargaining chips for future negotiations.

"They are not bargaining chips. They live there... and they will remain there until the government decides if and when there will be a change," Mordechai said in an interview with Israel TV yesterday. "I hope there won't be any change in their way of life. The underlying assumption of the Wye agreement is that no settlement will be moved.

Mordechai said the Defense Ministry would make sure law and order was kept and would only allow settlement expansion in areas which have already been approved.

"In areas where there are permits to build and develop, people will do so, and where there are no permits people won't be allowed to do so."

Mohammed Najib contributed to this report.

Headlines

• Redeployment could alter US role
• IDF wraps up Wye's first stage today
• First Wye pullout to end by tomorrow
• Settlers scurry to limit pullout threat
• IDF poised to implement first Wye transfer
• Wye redeployment begins today
• PM confident he can sell Wye
• Netanyahu flies to capital to avoid protesters
• Right outraged at Wye signing, Left skeptical
• PA officials pleased, extremists reject accord
• Settler leaders weigh next steps
• US Jewish leaders hail accord

• What's in the accord?

• Text of The Wye Memorandum

• Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech
• PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's speech

• A patchy deal can easily unravel
• Strained relations
• Clinton deserves praise for job well done
• Wye deal to launch final talks
• Netanyahu turns centrist, but still faces Right
• Now for the tough part
• REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Reflections on Wye

• EDITORIAL: A tardy first step
• The next stage

• Sources: There was a tacit deal to release Pollard
• A Pollard chronology
• Pollard's father disappointed that Israel 'caved in' over release