IDF arrests teen carrying explosives

IDF troops stationed at the Hawara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus arrested a 16-year-old Palestinian boy carrying an explosives belt in a bag Thursday.

The bag also contained an improvised gun and 20 bullets. The boy, identified as Mahmoud Tabouq, told troops he was carrying the explosives belt for a suicide attack, an IDF source said.

Palestinian militant groups made no immediate comment.

During the past several months, troops have caught a number of Palestinian youth attempting to smuggle explosives through the checkpoint.

At the meeting Israel offered to release 900 Palestinian prisoners, 500 immediately and another 400 in three months. This offer was made following the approval by a special ministerial team of a draft of security arrangements with the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinian officials demanded at the meeting the release of veteran, ill, and young prisoners. Israel, however, replied that the criterions for the release of prisoners will only be set by Israeli security authorities.

The Palestinian officials, Saeb Erekat, Mohammed Dahlan and Hassan Abu-Libda, who was the hardliner of the three, told the Israelis: "this offer is an insult. You offend Abu Mazen (PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas) and are not trying to meet him halfway."

"You must release the 237 prisoners arrested prior to the Oslo agreement, this is what we care about, and not the 900 that you offer. You are not coordinating (prisoner) names with us," said the Palestinians...

...Their Israeli counterparts - senior aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Dov Weissglass, political adviser Shalom Turjeman, PM's communication adviser Assaf Shariv and head of the politics-security department at the Ministry of Defense, Amos Gilad - clarified the Israeli offer was final, and more prisoners will not be released, certainly not prisoners with "blood on their hands," a reference to attacks that caused Israeli casualties.