GAZA, 23 December — A day after Hamas announced suspension of attacks in Israel, the Jewish state said yesterday that it would continue to assassinate Palestinian activists. Israel’s minister without portfolio, Tzipi Livni, told Israeli public radio that "Israel’s targeted raids against Palestinians preparing attacks will continue because they are not punitive operations but acts of self-defense."
Avi Pazner, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, also rejected the Hamas gesture. "Palestinian terrorism must stop completely," he said. "We make no distinction between terrorism in Israel and in the (Palestinian) territories," he said, in allusion to the fact that the Hamas announcement said nothing about attacks in Palestinian territories.
The leader of the left-wing Meretz party told Israel radio that "Israel should put an end to its policy of targeted killings of Palestinians, because (Palestinian leader) Yasser Arafat’s actions against terrorism should be taken into account."
On Friday, Hamas announced that it was halting its attacks "until further notice" in order to protect Palestinian national unity. The announcement came after Arafat made an unprecedented televised address Sunday calling for a halt to all armed operations against Israel. The show of solidarity seemed to be aimed at halting increasingly bloody fighting between Palestinian police and activists, which reached a climax on Friday when six people were killed and over 80 wounded in a gunbattle in Gaza. The clashes were the worst since the Palestinian Authority was set up in 1994 and marked one of the most serious internal challenges made to Arafat’s leadership.
The United States, which put pressure on Arafat to suppress hard-line groups, expressed wariness at the announcements and demanded Arafat carry on with his crackdown. "I realize they’ve said they won’t conduct bombings. That has to lead to the conclusion that maybe someday they’ll say they will. The point is that the Palestinian Authority needs to make sure that they can’t," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters in Washington.
The decision by Islamic Jihad did not appear clear-cut yesterday as a Jihad official in Beirut denied the group was halting attacks and another official in the Gaza Strip said it would not necessarily follow Hamas’ lead. Hamas’ military wing posted a statement on its website saying it would uphold the decision to suspend attacks against Israel, although it included a proviso. "If the enemy violates this then we...will be free of our promise and the decision to halt attacks will be canceled. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," the statement said.
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said the decision by the groups put the ball in Israel’s court. "The Authority sees the steps taken by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad as a positive response and now Israel has to immediately withdraw its troops from reoccupied Palestinian areas, and has to stop assassinations and lift the siege," Erekat said.
The European Union’s Middle East peace envoy urged the Palestinian Authority to eliminate the Hamas and Islamic Jihad networks whose attacks he said undermined the Palestinian leadership.
"We hope that these terrorist networks will be eliminated as soon as possible," Miguel Angel Moratinos told reporters after meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara. "We think at this stage that these activities are undermining the Palestinian future, Palestinian Authority and Palestinian leadership," he said.
The six killed in Friday’s gunbattle were buried in low-key funerals in the Gaza Strip from which gunmen were banned in an effort to prevent fresh fighting between activists and Palestinian security forces.
Late at night, Palestinian police arrested the leader of the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad for the northern Gaza Strip, Shadi Mohanna, and one of his assistants. Palestinian security sources said Mohanna and his second-in-command, Mahmud Jahud, fired on police in Friday’s bloody clashes during a funeral procession for a Jihad member in the Jabaliya refugee camp. Arafat’s crackdown has included outlawing the military wings of Hamas and other groups and ordering the arrest of dozens of activists. Israel has said the efforts were a sham and the arrests were symbolic and omitted those behind the attacks. Islamic Jihad and Hamas say their recent attacks have been retaliation for Israel’s use of force to try to quell the 15-month-old uprising against occupation. At least 790 Palestinians and 233 Israelis have died since the uprising began in September 2000 after peace talks froze.
US President George W. Bush has acknowledged the challenges facing the Palestinian Authority and reiterated his support for the creation of a Palestinian state, the official WAFA news agency said. Quoting Arafat’s top adviser, Nabil Abu Rudeina, WAFA said Bush told the Palestinian leader in a letter he was "conscious of the challenges lying ahead for the Palestinian Authority."
