GAZA CITY, 20 May 2005 — Israel yesterday threatened to resume its policy of targeted killings of Palestinian activists as militants fired mortars and rockets at Gaza Jewish settlements for a second day.
Dozens of projectiles fell on the settlements. A mortar shell exploded in an Israeli Army base just outside Gaza, causing some damage but no injuries. Two rockets hit the Karni crossing point into Israel, the military said.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz called military commanders in for consultations and let it be known that Israel would go back to targeted killing of Palestinians about to fire mortars — as it did Wednesday, killing a Hamas activist.
Such raids would likely trigger further violence by Hamas, claiming the right to retaliate for Israeli operations — leading the current truce down the slippery slope to collapse.
Mofaz said during a closed meeting with security chiefs that Palestinian police were not fulfilling their obligations to stop the militants. The minister said he would not allow Israelis to be harmed and would exact a price for attacks by militants, according to participants in the meeting.
On Wednesday, Israel launched its first airstrike since January against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip who were preparing to fire mortars at a Jewish settlement. A Hamas member was wounded and later died, less than 24 hours after the death of another Hamas activist in southern Gaza.
The violence has threatened a fragile de facto truce Palestinian fighters have been observing since January.
As senior Israeli and Palestinian officials met in Jerusalem in a bid to prevent the situation from unraveling, the head of the southern division of the Palestinian national security services said Hamas was not sticking to their side of the bargain. The Palestinian commander tasked with preventing rocket attacks on Jewish settlements in the southern Gaza Strip expressed exasperation at Hamas’ continued violations of the truce agreement but insisted he will not be forced into a direct confrontation. “Many times, they say they are in the cool-down mode, but then they do something on the ground,” Gen. Jamal Al-Qayed said from his office in Khan Younis.
“All the factions, all these people have agreed to stop (attacks) to keep things calm. They gave their word; they should keep their word,” said the Palestinian head of Gaza’s southern command for national security.
However, Qayed insisted that his officers were not going to spark direct confrontation with militants by cracking the whip. “I’m not going to make a fight with the factions. I have to stop them, not kill them. I have orders to prevent them, not to fight them,” he said. “If you want me to stop them, give me something,” he said, condemning continued Israeli checkpoints, Wednesday’s airstrike and a reluctance to release Palestinian prisoners.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Dov Weisglass, an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, met yesterday to try to restore calm, a senior Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity.
In another signal behind-the-scenes efforts to preserve the truce were being made, officials said Mofaz plans to bring a list of 400 Palestinian prisoners to be freed before the Cabinet in 10 days. Israel pledged to free the prisoners as part of the truce but stopped the process, charging that the Palestinians were not holding up their end of the deal.
— Additional input from agencies
