
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 17, 1994                   TAG: 9410170094
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: JERUSALEM                                 LENGTH: Medium

ISRAEL AGREES TO TALK

Israel agreed Sunday to resume talks with the Palestinians on extending autonomy in the occupied lands, after they were suspended last week over the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Islamic militants.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said negotiations would resume Tuesday in Cairo, Egypt. Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat declined comment, but Palestinian sources said privately that they would attend the talks.

The Israeli Cabinet also reopened the Gaza Strip, sealed off during the kidnapping crisis. But ministers emphasized they expected Arafat to continue with his crackdown against Hamas, the militant fundamentalist group that captured the soldier.

Talks were suspended after the abduction of 19-year-old Nachshon Waxman, who was killed by his captors Friday night when Israeli commandos stormed their hideout near Jerusalem. A commando and three militants also died in the raid.

Fallout from the raid was still felt Sunday in Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinian police blocked roads in central Gaza City to prevent riots, then joined Israeli soldiers in defusing protests by hundreds of Islamic militants near an isolated Jewish settlement.

Violence also was reported in the West Bank, where soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian, 22-year-old Emad Edabe, near Hebron after he refused orders to halt. The army said Edabe had appeared to be committing a theft.

Under intense pressure from Rabin, who believed incorrectly that Waxman was being held in Palestinian-controlled Gaza, Arafat arrested 160 fundamentalists in a two-day sweep last week.

On Sunday, Palestinian police with shields and helmets formed a human chain around Gaza's central prison, where thousands of Islamic militants had rallied Saturday, threatening to ``make Gaza burn'' if their arrested colleagues were not released.

After police blocked eight busloads of students from Islamic University on the outskirts of Gaza City, the students marched toward the tiny Jewish settlement of Netzarim.

The students threw stones at the Israeli soldiers guarding the settlement and at Palestinian police who formed a buffer between the two groups.

Despite the disturbance, the Israeli Cabinet decided to lift a nearly weeklong closure on the Gaza Strip as of today. The restrictions have prevented tens of thousands of Gazans from reaching jobs in Israel.

by CNB