OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/ RAMALLAH, 29 March — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signaled his willingness yesterday to agree to an official cease-fire with Israel.
Speaking at a news conference in Ramallah, he said he would accept such a cease-fire on the basis of the Tenet Plans and the compromise suggestions put forth by US envoy Anthony Zinni last week.
His announcement came amid mounting tensions and more bloodshed.
Three Israelis were killed and two were seriously wounded when a gunman infiltrated the settlement of Elon Moreh in the West Bank, south of Nablus, yesterday evening. Eyewitnesses said that the gunman entered a home on the outskirts of the settlement and began shooting at its inhabitants. The gunman also exchanged fire with civilian guards.
The announcement also came as Palestinian Authority (PA) braced for a broad Israeli Army operation in its territories in retaliation for a bombing that killed 20 Israelis and wounded at least 130.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks and troops blocked main roads through Gaza, dividing the Mediterranean strip in three, and tightened a closure of its volatile Erez junction with Israel. Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian in Khan Yunus.
An Israeli official earlier warned Tel Aviv will “not wait for long” before launching a military response to the Palestinian bombing on Wednesday, stressing the attack had taken the conflict to a new level.
“We are not going to wait for long. There will be a response, I can’t say how strong or where,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon told AFP.
“If the Palestinians want war, then we will have to take all the necessary measures to win this conflict,” he added. The bombing in the northern town of Netanya had “crossed a red line that has never been crossed before.”
“This changes totally the rules of the game,” he warned.
The Hamas which claimed responsibility for the attack vowed yesterday to unleash a wave of attacks on Israel in defiance of US and Arab peace efforts. The Izzedine Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas that has carried out the most devastating suicide attacks in the 18 months of fighting, said in a chilling statement the blast was a foretaste of new attacks.
“The operation by (activist) Abdelbasset Odeh in a Netanya hotel is one of the operations out of a wave being prepared by Izzedine Al Qassam Brigades as a modest gift for the terrorist Sharon and his Nazi government,” the Brigades said, referring to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
“As long as there is an occupation, there will be resistance by all the means at our disposal,” said Abdelaziz Al-Rantissi, a senior Hamas official here.
“Israel has not stopped killing innocent Palestinian civilians. We cannot remain inactive,” he told AFP.
Rantissi shrugged off the Palestinian Authority’s condemnation of the so-called Passover killings and its pledge of tough measures against the perpetrators.
