RAMALLAH, 12 March 2005 — In a massive show of strength, thousands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists rallied in the Gaza Strip yesterday, sending a message to Israel that only it could bring a halt to anti-Israeli attacks.
The head of Hamas in Gaza City, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, told reporters the “cooling down period” currently being respected by Hamas and other Palestinian factions could only “continue indefinitely if Israel offers concessions”.
“No one is optimistic about continuing this cooling down period indefinitely. Israel must offer something in return otherwise the resistance will continue,” Zahar said.
More than 7,000 Hamas supporters took part in the rally marking the first anniversary of Israel’s assassination of Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
The gathering was held in an empty lot near Yassin’s home.
Zahar said Hamas would decide in “the coming days” whether it would sign on to a cease-fire due to be discussed at inter-Palestinian talks on March 15 in Cairo.
“It will depend on what our Egyptian brothers get from Israel” in exchange for a truce, he said.
Earlier, some 1,500 armed members of Islamic Jihad took part in a demonstration in the streets of Gaza City.
Their faces covered by black balaclavas, the demonstrators raised their Kalashnikov rifles in the air as they marched after Friday prayers, burning Israeli and US flags and effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US President George W. Bush.
The activists also brandished a large banner made up of the Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian flags.
“This march is a message saying yes to the intifada and yes to the resistance,” said a political leader of Islamic Jihad, Mohammed Al-Hindi.
Hindi said he expected the talks in Cairo to be “successful”, but stressed that a cease-fire with Israel would not come “for free”.
“Everyone knows that there will be no free cease-fire,” he said. The Cairo talks were initially scheduled for early March but were postponed after a bombing in Tel Aviv that killed five people on Feb. 25.
Meanwhile, Israel’s defense minister decided yesterday to carry out a planned Gaza withdrawal in just up to four weeks, significantly shortening an initial three-month timetable, Israeli defense officials confirmed.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz approved the new plan yesterday, the officials said on condition of anonymity. The withdrawal from all Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements will begin in July, and will take between three to four weeks to complete, the officials said.
The first military plans for the withdrawal outlined a 12-week pullout beginning in early July. In February, when Israel’s Cabinet approved the evacuation of 25 settlements, Mofaz said the army would aim to complete the withdrawal in eight weeks, but was seeking ways to further shorten the pullout.
— With input from agencies
