MIDEAST . . . BELATED BREAKTHROUGH

Israel detailed plans for a phased withdrawal from West Bank towns before Palestinian elections this year, provided that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat's government stops militants who oppose peacemaking from attacking Israelis in the self-rule areas. "I think that the Palestinians who enter the cities understand very well that if there will be terrorism, everything that was agreed upon will not stand the test of reality," Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres told a news conference. Peres and Arafat set July 25 as a target date to signthe emerging accord, already a year overdue and one of the key preconditions for Palestinian independence.The first troop evacuations under the plan would begin by the end of August, and all Israeli troops would leave the region by mid-1997.