RAMALLAH, 10 June 2003 — Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas yesterday stood by his vow to quell anti-Israeli violence while pressing to renew talks with hard-liners who harshly criticized him.

At a sometimes-stormy news conference here, Abbas refused to back down from the pledge he made at last Wednesday’s Middle East summit in Aqaba, Jordan that infuriated Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Hamas yesterday reiterated its opposition to cease-fire talks with Abbas. Hamas leaders met in the Gaza Strip to discuss the appeal by Abbas, otherwise known as Abu Mazen. But Ismail Abu Shanab, a senior Hamas official, said: “He has not changed his attitude from Aqaba. Therefore the situation is unchanged regarding dialogue with Abu Mazen.”

Another Hamas official, Abdel-Aziz Rantissi, said: “We stopped dialogue based on some developments and now there are new developments that need to be studied...Our position now remains as it was until we study them.”

Hamas’ Gaza spokesman Mahmud Zahar reacted positively but cautiously. “We welcome Abu Mazen’s remarks on dialogue,” he told AFP.

But Zahar stayed vague about prospects for mending fences with the premier. “We reject his skepticism about our intentions,” the Hamas official said. “He considers our jihad as propaganda.”

Islamic Jihad leader Mohammad Al-Hindi, whose group had maintained its readiness for dialogue, also welcomed Abbas’ opening for a resumption of inter-Palestinian talks. But he urged deputies to oppose his Aqaba speech.

“Abbas’ comments on dialogue are very positive, but we are asking Parliament members to reject his speech in Aqaba,” he told AFP.

With his voice rising in defiance, Abbas said at the press conference the job of his five-week-old government was to ease the suffering of the Palestinian people and this was not helped by “either propaganda or incitation” by radicals. “Stop the escalation,” he pleaded. “We need a realistic vision to enable the government to do its job well.”

But Abbas sought to shore up his support, saying he would submit his summit speech to the Parliament “which will have the final word.”

At the Aqaba summit, Abbas enraged hard-liners by using the term “terrorism” to describe their military operations and calling for an end to the armed intifada. They said he did not represent the Palestinian people.

In another development, the Israeli Army yesterday demolished 13 Palestinian homes in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun, including one belonging to a Palestinian who helped carry out a deadly shooting, Palestinian security sources said.

One of the dynamited houses belonged to Mussa Sakhawil, a 22-year-old member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who was one of three Palestinians who carried out a shooting attack on a military post at the Erez crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Sunday, they said.

Abbas condemned the deadly attacks by Palestinians on Sunday. But he also sought to disarm critics who accuse him of giving short shrift to the question of Palestinian prisoners held by the Israelis.

He said the plight of the prisoners, who he estimated to number 10,000, “is and will remain the priority of my government.”

Arafat, meanwhile, has yet to make any direct comment on Abbas’ pledge in Aqaba to “exert our full efforts using all our resources to end the militarization of the intifada.”

But Abbas said yesterday he would continue to work for a lifting of the siege imposed since December 2001 on Arafat, whom the United States and Israel want to sideline from the peace process.

“Our president holds the Nobel Peace Prize and it is abnormal that he continues to live locked up,” Abbas said.

Abbas’ office said yesterday that the premier refused to hold talks with visiting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over the latter’s refusal to meet with Arafat.

Israel began an operation to evacuate a Jewish settler outpost yesterday under the US-backed “road map” to peace, the main settler organization said. The YESHA Council said Israeli Army tractors had arrived at the Neve Erez outpost in the West Bank, northeast of Jerusalem, to begin demolishing caravans.