Situation in Palestine calms down with truce, some Israeli withdrawal

As the Jewish State pursued its so-called policy of targeted killings against some figures of the Palestinian leadership, Jewish settlers randomly invaded and settled on top of the hills in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

Meanwhile, divisions among the Palestinian leadership came to the fore after Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas threatened to resign his PLO position while President Yasser Arafat accused him, in front of UN envoy Terje-Rod Larsen of "betraying the cause of the Palestinian people."

Earlier, the Palestinian factions succeeded in reaching a compromise for a truce. The cease-fire agreement came after endless rounds of negotiations in which, imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti reportedly participated.

Along the same lines, Palestinian and Israeli officials negotiated the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza and other areas in the West Bank such as Bethlehem.

Talks between the two parties are expected to continue throughout the coming weeks. The seemingly cooling down Palestinian-Israeli conflict was coupled with reports about the Israeli release of Palestinian detainees including Barghouti.

"Israel is imposing its own fire by saying to Palestinians hold your fire while at the same time she goes on with it it calls eradicating terror and targeted killings," said a fighter from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who preferred to remain anonymous due to security reasons.

"I don't think the truce will hold, sooner or later Israeli would provoke the Palestinians by assassinating a leader or erecting a new settlement," he added.

Some analysts said that the "rush" for peace motivated and directed by the White House's zeal to "get somewhere with the peace process" before the administration goes into the pre-election period of hibernation.