MIDDLE EAST: Hundreds of Palestinian policemen yesterday deployed in the northern Gaza Strip to prevent the firing of rockets by militants into Israel.
The move, ordered by newly-elected Palestinian leader Mr Mahmoud Abbas, has generated renewed hope for calm, and even elicited a rare upbeat assessment by Israel's chief of staff.
The deployment came as Mr Abbas met militant groups in Gaza to try and persuade them to accept a ceasefire. The armed organisations are insisting that if they agree to a truce then Israel must agree to suspend all military actions. Israel has refused to make such a commitment.
Mr Abbas said he did not know "how soon we shall have results," but there were positive indications. Hamas intimated it was suspending the rocket fire during truce talks. One Hamas spokesman said the organisation "can't be negotiating and firing rockets at the same time."
This move, along with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, partly explains why no rockets have been fired since Wednesday. Prior to that, launches were a daily occurrence, leading Israeli officials earlier this week to threaten extensive military action in the Strip if they did not cease.
A 17-year-old girl injured in a rocket attack last weekend in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, died of her wounds yesterday.
In northern Gaza, Palestinian forces spread out, patrolling the areas from where the makeshift rockets have been fired into Israel. Old police positions were remanned and drivers were stopped and their cars searched for weapons. The deployment follows the resumption of security co-ordination this week between the two sides, which collapsed shortly after the outbreak of the intifada in September 2000.
During the intifada, Palestinian policemen became involved in the fighting and they disappeared from the streets. As the warfare intensified, Israel targeted their positions and many of them joined armed groups like the Al Martyrs Aqsa Brigades, which is linked to the ruling Fatah party.
Mr Abbas said more forces would be deployed tomorrow in southern Gaza. "We are extending maximum effort to carry out our obligation to stop violence against Israelis everywhere," said cabinet minister Mr Saeb Erekat.
"We urge the Israeli side to return to the negotiating table so we can have a declaration of a mutual cessation of violence."
Israel's army chief, Lt Gen Moshe Ya'alon, sounded encouraged: "Today we are witness to the beginning of positive developments on the Palestinian side."
In Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, the prevailing view was that the severing of ties with Mr Abbas last week after an attack in Gaza killed six Israelis and the threat of military action if the rocket fire continued, had pressured the Palestinian leader into deploying his forces.
In another positive sign, Israel yesterday reopened the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza. The crossing was closed in mid-December after five Israelis were killed in an attack there and has left thousands of Palestinians stranded, unable to get back to the Strip.
Mr Abbas believes that if he can end attacks on Israel, restructure the chaotic Palestinian security services and put an end to corruption in the Palestinian Authority, he will win international support for his positions and ultimately force Mr Sharon to the negotiating table.
The Israeli leader, who has said he is prepared to co-ordinate his plan with the Palestinians to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza in the summer, is loathe to return to full-fledged negotiations over final status issues like borders, refugees and the fate of Jerusalem - all subjects Mr Abbas wants to put on the table.
The new Palestinian leader is also hoping that the fatigue and economic distress of his own people, after more than four years of fighting, will enable him to persuade them, for now at least, that violence has undermined, not promoted, their interests.
After a series of failed ceasefire attempts, both sides are acutely aware of the fragile nature of the current calm.
Both leaders - especially Mr Abbas, who is still trying to establish his legitimacy - also face domestic pressures, sharpened by the ongoing violence.
Mr. Sharon has been under pressure to react to the firing of rockets into Israel, and Mr Abbas's efforts to forge a truce will not have been made easier by ongoing Israeli military actions, like the ones which led to the deaths of two 12-year-old boys on Thursday, one in Gaza and one in the West Bank.