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del.icio.us Digg It!  new PA police forces to deploy in Nablus today By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff Hundreds of Palestinian police officers are expected to deploy today in the West Bank city of Nablus, following talks yesterday evening on the issue between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The talks were held after Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad reached an agreement in principle on the deployment roughly one and a half months ago. Advertisement The deployment was not carried out earlier, due to difficulties on the Palestinian side in organizing their forces. Israel has agreed to allow 500 police officers deploy, although only 300 are actually expected to do so. Nonetheless, Israel has made it clear that the Israel Defense Forces will continue to operate in the West Bank city when needed and will retain overall security responsibility in the Nablus area, while the police officers will focus on imposing law and order. According to recent reports, United States Mideast security coordinator Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton has said behind closed doors that the Palestinian security forces operating in the West Bank are not adequately prepared to accept security responsibility over Palestinian cities. Barak told officials during his recent visit to the U.S. that Israel is interested in further easing restrictions on Palestinians, and to allow their security forces to operate in the West Bank. In meetings with Israeli officials, Dayton praised Fayad for his efforts to rehabilitate the Palestinian security services. However, Dayton, who before Hamas' rout of Fatah in the Gaza Strip expressed faith in the ability of the PA security forces, now has a much more pessimistic assessment of their capabilities. Israeli intelligence officials share Dayton's pessimistic assessment, telling the political leadership that the PA would be unable to exercise security control over West Bank cities in the near future. Fayad himself said during the summer that his forces are not yet ready for the mission. Israel, however, is continuing to allow the PA to deploy police officers in West Bank cities in order to preserve public order, but not take responsibility for security matters. The PA established a select force during the summer, which is currently awaiting deployment in Nablus. Once deployed, the force will immediately begin a sweeping operation to counter criminal activity in the city. Bookmark to del.icio.us Remembering Rabin 150,000 gather in Tel Aviv to mark the 12th anniversary of Rabin's assassination. Bring on the big guns A U.S. judge okays defense request to subpoena Rice, Hadley in AIPAC trial.

Today Online Report: Lebanese army fired on IAF fighter jets Responses: 447 Olmert seeks accord on 'core issues' while Bush in office Responses: 164 BICOM chief: Israel supporters in U.K. must stand up for Palestinian state Responses: 104 Editorial: Israel kowtows to its Jewish masters overseas Responses: 88 Yoel Marcus: An eye for an eye is not half-bad in Gaza Responses: 76 Gov't defends decision to curb power supply to Gaza Strip Responses: 146 More Headlines 23:40 150,000 join Tel Aviv rally marking Rabin's murder 22:04 Fayad wants Israel to free 2,000 prisoners ahead of peace summit 00:49 Turkey seeks right to build monument in J'lem's Old City 18:55 Report: Syrian gov't secrecy left nuclear facility undefended by army 21:53 Rice holds rare meeting with Syria FM for talks on Lebanon 15:08 AIPAC trial judge okays defense to subpoena Rice and Hadley 23:22 IAF air strike in south Gaza kills Hamas militant, wounds three 22:54 Musharraf: Emergency declared due to terrorism, extremism 14:08 Palestinian central bank chief resigns citing 'personal reasons' 07:26 World powers agree to push ahead with tougher UN sanctions on Iran Previous Editions Select Day 02 nov 01 nov 31 oct 30 oct 29 oct 28 oct 26 oct 25 oct 24 oct 23 oct 22 oct 21 oct

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