Israel Moves Ahead On Withdrawal

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's national security team has recommended that Israel withdraw from virtually all of the Gaza Strip and up 24 West Bank settlements, a government official said Thursday, as U.S. diplomats sought more details on the proposal.

Meanwhile, Egypt's foreign minister told his Israeli counterpart Egypt has never considered deploying troops in the Gaza Strip to maintain security if Israel withdraws, but would defend its own border against any spillover of violence.

CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger reports Assistant Secretary of State William Burns is leading a three-member American delegation that will hold talks with Sharon and other senior Israeli officials to learn more about Sharon's plan. The U.S. fears that if Israel pulls out, the Islamic terrorist group Hamas will take over.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Thursday said he would welcome a Gaza withdrawal, but insisted it would have to be accompanied by a simultaneous pullback from the West Bank.

Also Thursday, Israel's Supreme Court extended a freeze on construction of a 15-mile section of the country's contentious West Bank separation barrier until next Wednesday.

The court had initially suspended construction in the area, around eight Palestinian villages northwest of Jerusalem, on Feb. 29 at the request of a civil rights group representing Israeli and Palestinian opponents of the barrier.

The opponents say the barrier — which Israel says is needed to block suicide bombers — will severely disrupt the lives of 30,000 Palestinians in the area.

The proposed Gaza withdrawal is part of Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" plan, aimed at separating Israel and the Palestinians in the absence of a peace deal.

Sharon has said his plan also would include an exit from part of the West Bank, removing some Jewish settlements and imposing a boundary on the Palestinians. However, he has released few details.

A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the National Security Council has drawn up a preliminary plan to evacuate most Gaza Strip settlements and up to 24 in the West Bank. Details of the plan first appeared in the Maariv daily.

The official emphasized that no decisions have been made on the scope or timing of a withdrawal. The final decision will depend on Egyptian, Jordanian and U.S. reactions to the plan, the official said.

Israel wants Egypt, which borders Gaza, to take a role in maintaining security after a withdrawal.

"It wasn't considered, sending Egyptian troops to Gaza. However, concerning defending our borders, that's our responsibility," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said after talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.

Shalom is the highest Israeli official to visit Egypt since Sharon took office in early 2001.

Shalom met earlier Thursday with President Hosni Mubarak, but he did not say whether he had secured any pledges from the Egyptians about security in the area.

Shalom told Israel Radio that Egypt should play a greater role in policing the border with Gaza, regardless of whether there is a withdrawal.

Israel has repeatedly called on Egypt to make a greater effort to stop the smuggling of weapons into the Palestinian territories. Mubarak has denied that tunnels from Egypt into Gaza are used for smuggling weapons.

Palestinians have responded cautiously to a Gaza withdrawal. They fear Sharon wants to entrench Israel in the parts of the West Bank it does not leave, frustrating their hopes of creating a state in all of Gaza and the West Bank with a capital in east Jerusalem.

"We welcome any simultaneous Israeli withdrawal from any part of our land. I mean from Gaza and the West Bank, from Gaza and the West Bank, from Gaza and the West Bank, to reach a full withdrawal from all of our territories," Arafat told a gathering of the Palestinian Legislative Council on Thursday.

However, the withdrawal "should be through talks between the two parties and the framework of the road map," he said, referring to a stalled U.S.-backed peace plan that aims for an independent Palestinian state by next year.

The United States has also been trying to find out whether Sharon's disengagement plan would fit with the road map. Several envoys arrived for two days of talks, including a meeting with Sharon later Thursday.

The officials, traveling to the region for the second time in less than a month, are Assistant Secretary of State William Burns; Stephen Hadley, deputy director of the National Security Council; and Elliot Abrams, a Middle East specialist at the council.

Israeli officials also discussed the plan in Washington last week with Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

The withdrawal plan will also be brought up at a summit between Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia tentatively scheduled for next week, Israeli officials said on condition of anonymity. Final details of the meeting are to be worked out Sunday.