TEL AVIV -- Israeli and Palestinian negotiators agreed yesterday that Israeli forces will withdraw from the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority will take responsibility for stopping terrorist attacks launched from there, officials on both sides said last night. [...]

Originally, the sides discussed an Israeli withdrawal and Palestinian Authority takeover in Bethlehem and in the three northernmost, relatively small, districts of Gaza. In the end, they put off Bethlehem and agreed to Israeli withdrawal and Palestinian Authority acceptance of security responsibility for all of Gaza -- an area of about 1.3 million people, slightly more than a third of the Palestinian population of the occupied territories.

Talks on implementing the withdrawal and on security coordination between the sides are scheduled to resume tomorrow. The pullback by the Israel Defense Forces could begin as soon as Monday. Talks on Bethlehem are expected to resume next week.[...]