JERUSALEM – Palestinians accepted a U.S. plan for a cease-fire to end 8 1/2 months of fighting with Israel, Palestinian officials said early Wednesday, adding that they still had reservations.
The agreement was reached in a meeting between CIA Director George Tenet and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Putting off his plan to leave the area, Mr. Tenet called a meeting of Israeli and Palestinian security commanders for later Wednesday, said the Palestinian officials, requesting anonymity.
Earlier, Israel had agreed to Mr. Tenet’s proposal to make an 11-day cease-fire a lasting one.
This could open the door to so-called confidence-building measures, designed to lead ultimately to new peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Mr. Tenet had packed his bags earlier Tuesday, and Bush administration officials had said he would fly home without an accord. But hours later, he resumed talks with the Palestinians.
The apparent agreement to halt the violence emerged after midnight in the Middle East.
The agreement came after Mr. Tenet went to Ramallah on Tuesday for a final meeting with Mr. Arafat and his aides, while about 1,000 Palestinians demonstrated nearby against the CIA chief’s proposals.
The demonstrators pledged that the Palestinian uprising would continue. Marwan Barghouti, West Bank leader of Mr. Arafat’s Fatah movement, said that Mr. Tenet “aims to end our intifada [uprising] without any political achievements.”
Mr. Tenet arrived last week to try to stabilize a shaky cease-fire that had been punctuated by Palestinian attacks and Israeli fire in return.
On Tuesday, an Israeli soldier was lightly wounded when Palestinians fired at a West Bank army position, the military said.
Also Tuesday, a Greek monk was killed in a drive-by shooting on the road between Jerusalem and the settlement of Maale Adumim in the West Bank, the military said. The military said the gunmen were Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared a unilateral cease-fire May 22. After a June 21 Palestinian suicide bomb attack in Tel Aviv killed 21 people, most of them Israeli teen-agers, Mr. Arafat called for an immediate end to violence.
Mr. Tenet met several times with Israeli and Palestinian security officials, separately and together, before presenting them with a written truce formula, dovetailing with a plan proposed by an international commission headed by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell.
