Shootings amid Mideast truce

Israel's Foreign Secretary Peres was in Brussels to meet the U.S. administration to discuss implementation of Tenet plan

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A Mideast truce plan came under immediate threat when a Palestinian and Israeli were killed in a roadside shoot-out.

The deaths on Thursday came just hours after the Israelis began implementing the first part of the U.S.-brokered Tenet plan which sets out the blueprint for a "cessation of hostilities."

Under the agreement Palestinians are required to begin stopping and preventing terror attacks and violence.

Israel would then respond by easing restrictions on the movement of Palestinian security forces and lift closures inside the Palestinian territories, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eleizer said.

VIDEO A review of the diplomacy surrounding the truce, from CNN's Jerrold Kessel (June 13) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

It would also carry out additional actions aimed at easing restrictions on Palestinians within 48 hours of the announcement and to begin to change deployment of Israeli forces, he added.

In a first step, Israel withdrew its tanks and removed a roadblock near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in Gaza on Thursday. Palestinian traffic was allowed to move freely.

It was seen as the first concrete step in implementing the plan brokered by U.S. CIA Director George Tenet.

But within hours an Israeli and a Palestinian were dead and another Israeli seriously injured, Israeli police said.

A Palestinian gunman got out of a car at a roadblock he had constructed on the outskirts of Jerusalem on the Tunnel Road leading to Bethlehem and fired on two members of the Israeli security services, Israeli radio said.

The wounded Israeli then shot and killed the Palestinian.

It was the second incident following the official start of the cessation of hostilities at 3 p.m. (1200 GMT) on Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening a Palestinian was killed in a drive-by shooting.

The truce is an attempt to bring to a halt eight months of fighting in the Mideast.

The CIA director had been "cautiously optimistic" about the future of relations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, U.S. President George W. Bush had said on Wednesday after his meeting in Brussels with NATO leaders -- before the killings.

The blueprint follows recommendations by the Mitchell Committee, an independent, international panel headed by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell.

The plan -- which would fulfil the first requirement of the Mitchell Committee report to stop the violence -- was hammered out in a meeting with Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat in the early hours of Wednesday.

Arafat said he would accept Tenet's proposals with reservations after Israeli officials had done the same the day before.

The Mitchell Committee report also calls for a number of confidence-building steps and a return to the bargaining table.

While the Palestinians accepted Tenet's blueprint, Palestinian sources said, they rejected a clause proposing a buffer zone around Palestinian-controlled areas.

Another obstacle brought up in the meetings with Palestinians was the issue of arrests of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant leaders. Israel had a list of those it demanded to be arrested.

Arafat has said he would arrest only people who broke the law after his June 1 declaration of a cease-fire.

But the plan requires the Palestinian Authority to immediately "apprehend, question, and incarcerate terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza," collect illegal arms including mortars, shut down bomb factories and prevent arms smuggling.