Report: Mideast security officials to assess cease-fire

Israeli soldiers and a Palestinian policeman supervise the truce

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Palestinian and Israeli security officials were set to meet with U.S. mediators on Friday to judge how well the Mideast truce agreement is holding, Israel Radio reported.

Raanan Gissin, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the Palestinians will determine how fast Israel implements the truce's terms.

"It's up to (Palestinian Authority President) Yasser Arafat," Gissin said. "It's up to the Palestinian Authority. If they want to move very quickly to implement this cease-fire, they will ensure that in every place there will be quiet and a cessation of hostilities. If they don't, of course, in those places where there is no complete cessation of hostilities, in those places we will remain and we will not execute the redeployment."

The agreement has been dubbed the Tenet truce because it was brokered by U.S. CIA Director George Tenet.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said that while he is not sure the Palestinians are committed to the Tenet agreement, Israel is.

VIDEO CNN's Mike Hanna has more on the truce and protests against it (June 14) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

"Since two days ago, three o'clock afternoon, I gave an order to all the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) to implement every word of this (truce)," Ben-Eliezer said. "The unfortunate thing is that that is not happening in the other side. In the other side is voices trying to explain to their population that they don't mean to implement it -- de facto, the firings are continuing, de facto, only this morning five shellings into one of our small cities."

"I'm not sure that the Palestinians have agreed to this cease-fire," Ben-Eliezer said. "I think what's happened there is that the whole world insisted the cease-fire on them.

"Again, we are trying ... all we can. We will continue trying to implement it, whatever. We'll open the gates, we'll open everything, we'll open the closures, we'll increase the support, and we'll see," he said.

The cease-fire agreement is the first step in implementing the recommendations included in the Mitchell committee report.

The report, issued by an international, independent five-man committee headed by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell that investigated Israeli-Palestinian fighting, calls for confidence-building measures from both sides and the eventual return to peace negotiations.

It calls on the Palestinians to crack down on what it describes as "terrorism." But Israel continues to complain that the Palestinian Authority has not re-arrested some Palestinians whom Israel describes as "terrorists."

The recommendations also call on the Israelis to freeze Jewish settlement activity in Palestinian-controlled territories, and Ben-Eliezer insisted Friday that has been done.

"The whole situation is frozen," he said, adding that the Palestinians shouldn't try to use the settlements issue as a reason not to honor the cease-fire.

Israeli tanks could be seen withdrawing from a number of areas on Thursday, and security was relaxed Friday in Jerusalem.

Israel Radio quoted an Israeli security source as saying leaders of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas had decided to reduce the group's attacks, particularly inside Israel.

The security official was quoted as saying the Hamas leaders view the cease-fire as a tactical move and don't want to provoke Arafat into taking action against them.

Hamas had vowed to continue its bombing campaign against Israelis.