JERUSALEM -- Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday warned his Arab neighbors against post-pullout attacks as the country's Cabinet voted to withdraw Israeli troops out of a south Lebanon occupation zone by July."I don't advise anyone to test our reaction when we are deployed on the international border and defending Israel from there," Barak said.
On Sunday, Israel's Cabinet voted unanimously in favor of the July withdrawal, which would end Israel's 18-year occupation in the Lebanese region that borders northern Israel.
Barak described the withdrawal as "an end to the tragedy. We are bringing the boys home."
The Cabinet said it wanted to pull out troops within the framework of a peace accord. It said the government would endeavor to pull out "with an agreement," a reference to Barak's efforts to revive stalled peace talks with Syria, the main power in Lebanon.
In the event of no such agreement, the Cabinet would meet again to discuss how to carry out the planned withdrawal.
'Deploy on the border by July 2000'
Lebanese villager Fatima Karaki hands her TV over to her son Ali after Israeli helicopter gunships damaged their house in Ain Bouswar, Lebanon, on Saturday. Israelis said they were targeting Hezbollah fighters
"The Israeli Defense Forces will deploy on the border with Lebanon by July 2000 and from there will ensure the safety of the northern towns and villages," read the statement from the Cabinet, reaffirming policy set by Barak. "The government will act to ensure that this deployment will be carried out in the framework of an agreement."Barak has said he prefers a withdrawal of troops based on an agreement with Syria, but has suggested for some time that Israel might withdraw unilaterally from the Israeli-occupied zone that the nation carved out in south Lebanon in 1985.
Interest in the possibility of a peace agreement increased when an Israeli state television political commentator maintained over the weekend that a comprehensive Syrian-Israeli peace deal, including the resolution of Israel's occupation of south Lebanon, was imminent.
U.S. helping negotiations with Syria
Such an imminent Syria-Israel peace agreement is disputed by officials in Jerusalem. But Barak did disclose at the Cabinet table that Israel is engaged in negotiations about a peace deal -- not directly with Syria, but through the United States.Philip T. Reeker, a spokesman for U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, said the emphasis now is on restarting negotiations with Syria.
The Cabinet decision made clear "Israel would prefer to withdraw as part of a negotiated settlement with Lebanon and Syria," Reeker told journalists in the Czech Republic, where Albright was visiting on Sunday.
"We believe that the needs of all the parties are best addressed through negotiations," Reeker said. "That's why we're doing everything we can to get them restarted and work toward a comprehensive peace."
Within two months, Barak said it would become clear whether a negotiated peace would be possible.
Haim Ramon, Israel's minister for Jerusalem affairs, said the Cabinet's decision improved Israel's position in the negotiations by limiting any leverage Syria may have.
"The Syrians very, very much don't like the idea of a unilateral withdrawal. Now, if they want, this is the time to leave with an agreement.
"What we are saying to Syria is, let's negotiate now," Ramon added. "Let's resume the talks now and let's talk seriously over the next two to three months and let's reach an agreement, a comprehensive peace agreement with Syria, with Lebanon."
Lebanese PM welcomes withdrawal decision
Lebanese Prime Minister Selim al-Hoss welcomed the Israeli decision on Sunday. "It might be a ploy, it might be genuine, I don't know," al-Hoss said in an interview with CNN shortly after the Israeli announcement."We have been accustomed to seeing ploys from Israel. But ... we would welcome any withdrawal from Lebanese territory by Israel any time."
Al-Hoss said he was not optimistic about the prospects of an Israel-Syria peace deal in Lebanon before an actual withdrawal.
"There is a risk that the whole process may be put off until after the presidential election in the USA. In the interim, God knows that will happen affecting the peace prospects."
An Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon would satisfy the Lebanese, but Arab diplomatic sources suspect the timing of the Israeli decision may be an attempt to put pressure on both Syria and Lebanon into acceptance of a peace deal before July.
If so, Syria previously warned it would not work and that any unilateral Israeli troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon could complicate the peace process.
It was not clear how the Hezbollah would react to a unilateral withdrawal. Israeli officials predicted the group would continue its fight.
Hezbollah has said that it would focus on politics after an Israeli withdrawal, but has not committed to laying down arms.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa predicted the guerrillas would halt their attacks. "If Israel withdrew there will be no resistance," he told Lebanese Future TV in an interview.
Palestinian students demonstrate in Hebron
The decision by the Israeli Cabinet to withdraw came during a demonstration by about 2,000 Palestinian students in the West Bank town of Hebron on Sunday, urging Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas to launch new attacks on Israel.Demonstrators at Hebron's Polytechnic University burned French, U.S. and Israeli flags and carried signs, one of which read: "Hezbollah, launch attacks on Israel."
Some demonstrators wore simulated "suicide bomber" belts and burned cardboard bus mock-ups, reminders of Hamas attacks on Israelis.
The students, some of them members of militant Islamic and radical groups, demanded the release of colleagues held by the Palestinian Authority after the angry protest during French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's February 26 visit to Bir Zeit University near Ramallah.
Jospin was pelted with stones by Palestinian students after he described Hezbollah attacks on Israeli troops in south Lebanon as "terrorist acts."
Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters have been conducting a proxy war with Israeli soldiers, attacking Israeli military outposts in southern Lebanon.
On Saturday night, Hezbollah fired missiles at Beaufort, an Israeli-controlled castle on the Israel-southern Lebanon border.
Israeli soldiers returned fire and Israeli warplanes struck back at the guerrillas in an area southwest of the castle, officials said.
Israel steps up security
Meanwhile, security was stepped up in Israel on Sunday, three days after Israeli commandos killed four Hamas militants suspected of planning attacks on civilian targets.Commuter traffic was jammed for miles by police roadblocks at approaches to Tel Aviv and other urban centers. Security was also stepped up at main bus stations and shopping centers.
Hamas opposes Israeli-Palestinian peace moves. This weekend marks the fourth anniversary of a Hamas suicide bombing at a shopping mall in the heart of Tel Aviv that killed 13 people and wounded nearly 200.
The attack followed a wave of Hamas bombings, killing scores of Israelis. The incidents led to the election of Barak's hard-line predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996.
Fearing reprisals, Israeli security forces were not taking any chances. "We are prepared, in a broad deployment of all (police)formations ... to prevent and foil all terrorist acts," said Yehuda Bahar, head of the police operations branch, in an Israeli army radio broadcast.
Suspected militant cell destroyed
Israel said on Thursday it had foiled Hamas militants from carrying out a plot to attack Tel Aviv and other cities.Four members of a Hamas cell were killed in a raid in Taibeh, an Israeli Arab town near the West Bank with relatively easy access to major Israeli populated areas.
Police said a fifth militant was captured and another member of the cell might have escaped.
"There's no question we've stepped up the alert status as a result of the events in Taibeh ... The overall goal is to prevent any attacker from reaching the center (of Israel)," Bahar said.
Another Israeli officials echoed the wariness against Hamas and other militant groups that he said were set to disrupt any peace overtures between Israel and the Palestinians.
"As long as the peace process moves forward, with all its problems ...the desire of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to torpedo the process and carry out terror attacks only gets stronger," said Cabinet minister Amnon Lipkin-Shahak.
Palestinian-Israeli peace talks have been suspended since last month.
Correspondent Jerrold Kessel, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.