GAZA CITY, 9 October 2005 — The armed wings of Palestinian factions announced yesterday that they had signed a national covenant of honor aimed at safeguarding the resistance and maintaining their weapons.
Abu Obaidah, a spokesperson for Ezzedin Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said some parties are exploiting the state of chaos in the Palestinian territories to harm the resistance by disarming the groups of their weapons.
The armed wings of the national and Islamic factions signed a written national covenant of honor to protect the resistance from such plots.
In a statement to the press, Abu Obaidah said: “The covenant states that as long as the Israeli occupation continues, the resistance will remain the people’s national and strategic choice as a means of fighting this occupation. The covenant stresses on saving the national constants.” The covenant was signed by the armed wings of Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, PFLP, DFLP and the Popular Resistance Committee. Fatah was represented by three armed wings, and each other faction had one armed wing represented.
“Internal organizational disputes between any factions are a legitimate issue,” the covenant text read, referring to reports of rivalry among various militant groups. “However, the Palestinian leadership must not let any disputes to affect our national unity.” It warned that an attack on any of the armed wings factions would be taken as an attack on the whole and declared that “we will protect the legitimacy of the Palestinians in fighting the occupation.”
In another development, King Abdallah of Jordan will not attend Tuesday’s summit between Sharon and Abbas, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said yesterday.
The summit is the first meeting between Sharon and Abbas since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank last month.
King Abdallah had played an essential role in mediating between the two and had promised US President George W. Bush that he would be more involved in the Mideast peace process, according to Israeli sources.
Asked about releasing Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, Erekat said that the question of prisoners release is on the summit agenda and that the Palestinian side had called for the release of prisoners who had served more than 20 years.
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom called on Egypt to take stricter measures to prevent weapons being smuggled into the Gaza Strip.
Israeli radio reported yesterday that Shalom demanded that Egypt must act more decisively to secure the border from weapons smuggling.
