JERUSALEM – Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said yesterday he will meet Yasser Arafat next week to try to end the violence that claimed three more lives yesterday.
Peres, at a conference in Italy, said he hoped next week’s meeting with the PLO chairman would be the first of at least three.
“Our purpose will be to achieve a cease-fire so we should be able to implement the Mitchell report,” he said, referring to the peace plan drawn up by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell.
Peres added that progress in reaching peace would be assessed after each meeting.
Palestinian cabinet minister Nabil Shaath said Arafat insisted the meeting would not be solely devoted to Israel’s demand for an end to the fighting.
He also said there would be no meeting unless Peres was authorized to negotiate broader issues.
Peres, a key member of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s coalition government, had been directed by Sharon to limit any talks with Arafat to enforcing a truce.
Palestinian officials said no specific time and venue for the meeting had been set but Peres said it would take place next week at a Mideast location to be determined.
A meeting between the two Nobel Peace Prize winners has been sought for weeks but political tensions and the rising death toll blocked diplomatic efforts.
Earlier yesterday, Israeli helicopter gunships killed two Palestinians in the West Bank and Palestinian gunmen struck back by killing an Israeli.
The Palestinians were members of Arafat’s Fatah faction, who were killed when missiles blasted their jeep near the town of Tulkarm.
A third man, Raed al-Karmi, was the target of the attack but escaped with wounds, officials said. They called him a terrorist responsible for the recent deaths of at least six Israelis.
Five hours later, Palestinian gunmen claimed responsibility for the drive-by shooting in which an Israeli man was killed and a woman badly wounded as they traveled on an Israeli road north of Tulkarm.
The shooting came “to avenge the killing of the two martyrs in Tulkarm today,” gunmen from a group affiliated with Fatah announced over loudspeakers in the town.