OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 25 August 2003 — Palestinian security forces yesterday sealed off a tunnel in the Gaza Strip border town of Rafah which had been used to smuggle in weapons from Egypt, Israel Radio reported. The tunnel was the fourth to be sealed off since Saturday as part of the Palestinian Authority’s steps against militants.
The PA also deployed several dozen policemen in the northern Gaza Strip to prevent militants from firing Kassam rockets into Israel. But militants succeeded in firing a Kassam 2 rocket yesterday morning, which landed one kilometer from the Israeli city of Ashkelon, north of the Strip. It was the furthest distance into Israel a Kassam had ever reached. Palestinian Minister of External Affairs Nabil Shaath said yesterday the Palestinian Authority was trying to convince the militant factions to agree to a new cease-fire. He told Voice of Palestine Radio that the new truce needed to be internationally monitored in order to oblige Israel to commit to it as well as the Palestinians. A previous ceasefire collapsed last week after the Hamas movement claimed responsibility for a bombing on a Jerusalem bus which killed 21 people and Israel assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab in Gaza city.
