Israel hands over 2nd of 5 towns

TULKAREM, West Bank -- Israel completed the handover of the West Bank town of Tulkarem to Palestinian control Tuesday, ceremonially unlocking a gate that had blocked traffic between the town and main points in the West Bank.\nIsraeli and Palestinian commanders sealed the handover with a handshake at the gate, which an Israeli truck later hauled off. The transfer of control to Palestinian forces, which began Monday night, has nudged along a conciliation process that has proceeded fitfully since leaders announced an end to four years of bloodshed.\nThe transfer could help Palestinian officials carry out a new directive restricting weapons in the hands of militants, who insist they'll comply only if Israel withdraws from West Bank towns. Tulkarem residents welcomed the handover, but they said they didn't think it signaled a big move toward broader Palestinian-Israeli peace.\nAlso Tuesday, about 10,000 supporters of the violent Islamic Hamas group marched through the streets of Nablus to commemorate the anniversary of the killing of their spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, in an Israeli air strike in Gaza last year.\nThe marchers filled the center of the West Bank city, singing and waving green Hamas flags. Dozens of masked militants marched with the crowd but did not carry guns.\nTulkarem, located in a sensitive position on the line between Israel and the West Bank, is the second of five West Bank towns in which Palestinian security forces are to assume responsibility. Its transfer had stalled over whether to include nearby villages and roads.\nSimilar issues, which pitted Israeli security concerns against Palestinian suspicions of Israeli foot-dragging, had delayed the handover of the first town, Jericho, and are liable to re-emerge in negotiations on the other three.\nSince Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared an end to bloodshed at a Feb. 8 summit in Egypt, violence has dropped considerably, but not all confidence-building measures have been implemented.\nAlso Tuesday, Army Radio reported that Sharon received a report detailing final plans for the evacuation of Jewish settlements, recommending that houses in four West Bank settlements be destroyed but leaving infrastructure intact in Gaza.\nIsrael is set to evacuate 21 Gaza Strip settlements and four in the northern West Bank this summer. The document outlines different phases of the pullback and designates responsibility for each operation, the network said, adding that it deals with the actual withdrawal and the legal, economic and human aspects of the plan.\nIsraeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz issued an order banning Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza from entering Israel until Sunday as a security measure for the Jewish holiday of Purim, officials said.\nSuch closures are routine around Jewish holidays. Purim is characterized by parades and festivals, and security officials are concerned that gatherings of Israelis could be targeted by Palestinian bombers.\nBefore the gate was unlocked Tuesday, Palestinians had to make a four-mile loop to get onto the main road connecting Tulkarem with Nablus, the biggest city in the West Bank. Nablus, which is not slated for handover because Israel considers it a center of militant activity, is closed to vehicles, with entry allowed only on foot.\nTulkarem residents said they expected more order in their lives now that Palestinians have reassumed control of internal police matters and Israeli troops were less likely to come into the town to make arrests. They didn't foresee more than incremental changes.\n"We'll have traffic cops, we won't have the chaos in the streets that we have today. They'll be able to stop cars from being stolen, and movement in and out of the town will become easier now that they've removed the gate," said Nashat Salem, 46, owner of an electronics store in the center of town.\n"But on the path to peace, I'm not so sure we're going anywhere," Salem said.