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Last update - 00:00 03/08/2003
PA imprisons 17 Fatah militants
By Arnon Regular, Amos Harel and Aluf Benn

Guards of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and Palestinian troops imprisoned a group of Fatah militants in the Muqata's west wing on Friday, in a bid to facilitate Israel's withdrawal from Ramallah and removing the siege on Arafat.
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The arrest of the 17 militants, who appear on Israel's wanted list, followed an agreement between Arafat and Palestinian Public Security Minister Mohammed Dahlan to transfer the militants out of the Muqata, in coordination with Israel and the United States. The intention is to transfer the militants to a prison in Jericho.

Arafat made it clear to the prisoners, who refused to be transferred and were locked in one room, that they could no longer remain there and could either go to Jericho or to Ramallah, where they would be exposed to Israeli troops.

An Al-Aqsa manifesto circulated in Ramallah yesterday warned that the hudna would be halted if the militants are harmed in any way. But Palestinian sources said the crisis was artificial and intended to openly transfer all the militants in the Muqata in exchange for removing the siege on him.

Security sources yesterday confirmed that Israel will probably allow the PA to transfer some 20 militants from the Muqata to Jericho, providing the PA succeeds in doing so.

The sources said however that Israel did not commit itself either to removing the siege from Arafat or to withdrawing from Ramallah, but it is assumed that getting the militants out will ease the IDF's withdrawal.

One of the defense establishment's main arguments for the continued Israeli presence in Ramallah is the fact that the militants are still at large.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told Dahlan last week that Israel would not withdraw from other West Bank cities unless the Palestinians show "firmness and perseverance" in dealing with the terror organizations. The withdrawal talks, in which Israel offered Qalqilyah and Jericho and the Palestinians demanded Ramallah, are now stuck.

The Defense Ministry instructed the IDF on Friday to prepare for a swift evacuation of six settler outposts in the West Bank. The IDF was to have started the evacuation already last night. However, military sources said legal issues may delay the evacuation.

The Peace Now movement reported recently of the construction going on in these outposts, embarrassing the cabinet. But even more embarrassing was a Channel Two report last week showing the building in the outposts while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was meeting President George Bush in Washington.

Sharon promised Bush to evacuate 12 outposts as soon as possible.

The ministers' committee for prisoners' affairs will today discuss the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released, with the intention of approving the release of some 540 of them. Preparations are being made for the release of a few more hundred prisoners
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