US SECRETARY of State John Kerry is to return to the Middle East later this week to resume efforts to draw Israel and the PLO back into direct negotiations, reports said on Sunday.
According to the top-selling Israeli newspapers Yediot Aharonot daily and the left-leaning Haaretz, Kerry is to arrive in Israel towards the end of the week on what would be his sixth visit to the region in as many months.
On his previous visit, a four-day trip which ended on June 30, Kerry held hours and hours of intensive talks with both sides in a mission which he said had achieved ‘real progress.’
But PLO officials said there had been ‘no breakthrough’ that could lead to a resumption of direct negotiations following a hiatus of nearly three years.
‘John Kerry is on his way back: the US secretary of state is expected to arrive in Israel for the sixth time towards the end of the week, in order to try and get the negotiations with the Palestinians to move forward,’ said Yediot.
In his absence, Kerry left behind two aides to continue his work.
Frank Lowenstein, his senior adviser on the peace process, has been meeting ‘almost daily’ with Israeli negotiators Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Molho as well as with chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat, Haaretz said.
‘Lowenstein is trying to get the parties to agree to a document that would contain the principles for the renewal of talks but no agreement has emerged,’ the paper said.
Several days after Kerry’s departure, a Palestinian official said that the US top diplomat had presented the two sides with ‘an initiative to resume direct and intensive negotiations for a duration of six to nine months in order to reach a peace agreement.’
Under the proposal, the talks would be based on a 2011 speech by US President Barack Obama in which he called for a Palestinian state on the basis of the lines which existed before the 1967 Six Day War, but there would be no specific reference to a settlement freeze.
Similar details emerged on Saturday in a report by the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper which quoted Western diplomatic sources as saying the talks would take place within a framework of six to nine months, during which there would be a building freeze outside the major settlement blocs.
It also said Israel would agree to the staggered release of 103 Palestinian prisoners who have been held since before the 1993 Oslo Accords, and would allow the Palestinians to develop projects in Area C of the West Bank, around 60 per cent of the territory which is currently under full Israeli control.
Israeli officials were not immediately available to comment on either report.
US-brokered direct talks broke down in September 2010, just weeks after they were launched with the two sides locked in a dispute over settlement building.
Multiple diplomatic efforts to bring about a renewal of negotiations have so far failed.
l Egypt’s army is preparing for a large-scale military operation in Sinai, an army official said on Sunday, as forces sealed more smuggling tunnels along the Gaza border.
An Egyptian military official said that the army is preparing for a major operation in Sinai ‘to clean it up from terrorist and criminal cells’.
He said ‘coordination is ongoing between the Egyptians and the Israelis to bring military vehicles, troops and jets into Sinai to fight terror’.
The 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt has imposed strict controls on deployments in the desert peninsula.
Egyptian soldiers seized seven boxes of ammunition at a tunnel opening in the al-Barahmeh neighbourhood of Rafah on Sunday, the Egyptian official said, adding that the army had deployed to the area to stop infiltrators entering through tunnels.
Egyptian soldiers and armoured vehicles have deployed heavily along the Gaza border for two weeks.
They used sand to seal several smuggling tunnels along the border near the Brazil neighbourhood on Sunday.
Meanwhile on Saturday, the health ministry in Gaza warned that the tunnel closures had caused a fuel crisis which is affecting hospitals.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said hospitals’ fuel reserves are down to 20 per cent and they are having to use smaller generators to minimise fuel consumption.
The Hamas-run government has appealed for help from the Arab, Islamic and international communities as well as the World Health Organisation and human rights organisations, he added.
l Smugglers resumed pumping fuel to the Gaza Strip through tunnels under the Egyptian border on Sunday, easing the fuel crisis in the enclave, an official said.
Muhammad al-Abadlah, a spokesman for the federation of fuel companies, told Ma’an that enough fuel was being smuggled in to partially meet needs in Gaza.
Meanwhile, government official Abdul-Nasser Muhanna said the fuel crisis would be resolved soon.
Muhanna, an official in the general petroleum department, did not give any details on the source of the fuel.
Egypt’s crackdown on the smuggling tunnels had created a crippling fuel crisis in recent days, causing long queues at gas stations across Gaza.
The Egyptian army continued to close smuggling tunnels along the Gaza border on Sunday using sand to seal several tunnels near the Brazil neighbourhood.
An Egyptian military official said that soldiers seized seven boxes of ammunition at a tunnel opening in the al-Barahmeh neighbourhood of Rafah on Sunday. He added that the army had deployed to the Gaza border area to stop people entering through tunnels.
He said the Egyptian army is preparing for a major operation in Sinai following a series of militant attacks in the peninsula after the military ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Egypt has not informed Palestinian officials when it will reopen the Rafah crossing, the government in Gaza said on Sunday.
Due to Israel’s blockade, Rafah crossing is the only terminal for most Palestinians in Gaza to leave the enclave.
Egypt’s army closed the border terminal on Friday, saying it was due to unrest in Sinai following the army’s ousting of President Mohamed Mursi.
Several Islamist militants have publicly threatened to carry out raids in reprisal for Mursi’s dismissal last Wednesday.
On Sunday, militants blew up a gas pipeline in El-Arish, a day after gunmen killed a Coptic priest in the North Sinai city.
That came after armed supporters of Mursi had stormed the provincial headquarters in El-Arish on Friday and raised the black banner of Al-Qaeda-inspired militants.
Also on Friday, militants launched coordinated rocket and machine gun attacks on Egyptian army and police checkpoints in the Sinai, killing one soldier and wounding two others, Egyptian medical sources said.
A police station and a military intelligence building in the border town of Rafah also came under fire from rockets, according to security sources.
The Israeli army said on Tuesday that it had ‘authorised’ the deployment of Egyptian military reinforcements in Sinai.
‘The Egyptian military activity in the Sinai is coordinated with Israeli security elements and authorised at the most senior levels in Israel, in order to contend with security threats in the Sinai that pose a threat to both Israel and Egypt,’ the army said in a statement.