Israeli, Palestinian leaders to meet
JERUSALEM -- The Palestinian president and the Israeli prime minister are to meet early next week in Jerusalem ahead of an expected visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and key meetings of international mediators, officials said Saturday.
Palestinian officials said Abbas and Olmert would meet on Monday. David Baker, an official in Olmert's office, said the date was not yet final but it could be Monday or Tuesday.
The two leaders last held talks in Jerusalem in August. They have been meeting regularly in recent months as part of a U.S.-backed effort to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and convene an international peace conference expected in November in Washington.
In preparation, the "Quartet" of Mideast mediators -- the United States, the European Union, Russi and the United Nations -- is to convene in Washington toward the end of September and meet members of an Arab League committee that has been promoting a pan-Arab plan for peace with Israel.
Senior diplomats say a conference must produce tangible results and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Saturday asked the U.S. government to be painstaking in its preparations.
The conference should produce "explicit agreement on the establishment of a Palestinian state ... and lay down a binding timetable and international guarantees for the completion of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement," Fayyad told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
While Fatah loyalists in Gaza have been keeping a low profile since the violent Hamas takeover in June, there are signs that a comeback could be brewing. With the Gaza economy in tatters and Hamas suffering from an international boycott, its leadership appears to be showing signs of strain while Fatah backers are slowly regaining confidence.
A test could come on Sunday when Fatah and other groups affiliated to the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization -- of which Hamas is not a member -- have called a one-day general strike in Gaza to protest against Hamas rule and its heavy-handed clampdown on protesters in the strip on Friday.
Hamas militiamen armed with assault rifles and clubs beat Fatah supporters throughout Gaza Friday as they sought to hold street prayer meetings to voice dissent.
Seven journalists covering the protests were beaten and two of them were later detained, witnesses and reporters said. Two Associated Press staffers and another news photographer were also briefly detained by Hamas men.
Also Friday, Israeli troops disguised as members of the Hamas security forces penetrated about a mile into the southern Gaza Strip and snatched Muhawesh al-Khadi, a leading local Hamas official, from his Rafah home, Palestinians said.
On Saturday, a 16-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli army fire near the Gaza-Israel border, a Palestinian health official said.
The Israeli military could not confirm the casualty, but it said soldiers fired at Palestinians approaching the border, where there have been repeated infiltration attempts recently, after they refused orders to move away and ignored warning shots into the air.