GAZA/DAMASCUS, 8 July — The killing by Israel of a Palestinian boy near the Gaza-Egypt border and raging gunbattles yesterday further strained a US-brokered truce designed to end nine months of bloodshed.
Meanwhile, the Palestinians warned yesterday that a catastrophe was in the making should Israel not take immediate steps to get an international peace plan up and running, as fresh violence rumbled across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A senior Palestinian official said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s intransigence was stalling the Mitchell peace plan and said delays were only fanning the flames of unrest as a US-sponsored cease-fire has failed to take hold on the ground.
But Sharon’s camp vowed Israel would not budge on its demand that all the violence cease, despite criticism from European leaders that a 100 percent halt is unsustainable and that its own attacks on Palestinians are worsening the situation.
“The Israeli military escalation clearly shows that the Sharon government demurs over the implementation of the Mitchell report,” senior Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
“This policy — and American silence in the face of Israeli aggression — can lead to an explosion,” said Abu Rudeina, calling on the United States, Russia and the European Union to “force” Israel to implement the peace plan.
Zalman Shoval, a close associate of Sharon, said there could be no backing down from a seven-day period of total calm, negotiated by US Secretary of State Colin Powell during his visit to the region at the end of June, before moving forward with the Mitchell plan. But he said, “The seven-day countdown for implementing the Mitchell plan has not yet begun because the Palestinians are continuing their attacks.”
The Palestinians have repeatedly insisted the week is over and that it is time to go to the next phases, including a freeze on Israeli settlement building and a timetable for ending the army blockade around the Palestinian territories.
