RAMALLAH, West Bank, 15 December 2004 — New PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called for an end to the armed uprising, as Israeli tanks yesterday rolled into Gaza in the aftermath of the most lethal Palestinian attack since Yasser Arafat’s death.
Abbas, the overwhelming favorite to be elected Palestinian Authority president on Jan. 9, said that opposition to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip should be limited to non-lethal means.
“The use of weapons is harmful and it should stop,” Abbas told Arab News’ sister publication Asharq Al-Awsat.
He also emphasized “the necessity of keeping the intifada clear of weapons because the intifada is the legitimate right of the people to express their rejection of the occupation by popular and social means.”
While Abbas has been a previous critic of the militarization of the struggle against Israeli occupation, it was his strongest criticism of the armed factions since he succeeded Arafat at the helm of the PLO after the veteran leader’s death on Nov. 11.
His comments were published the day after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon blasted the new-look Palestinian leadership and the security services for doing nothing to rein in armed factions.
Angered by the deaths of five Israeli soldiers after militants blew up a tunnel near the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Sharon said he saw “no change” from the Palestinian Authority.
“There still isn’t even one small sign of trying to lower the fire,” said Sharon.
Reports yesterday said that Sharon had given the army top brass “free rein” to counter attacks by Gaza-based militants in the wake of Sunday night’s killings.
In the largest Israeli operation in Gaza since Arafat’s death, tanks and bulldozers staged an early morning incursion in Khan Younis yesterday.
Witnesses and residents said around 15 houses had been destroyed in the southern town’s refugee camp, while an army spokesman said a military unit “had destroyed houses where Palestinians were firing mortars or other arms.”
According to the spokesman, 300 mortar shells have been fired in the area since November, targeting Jewish settlements or military posts.
Abbas has been working behind the scenes to persuade militant groups such as Hamas, responsible for the majority of anti-Israeli attacks since the September 2000 start of the Palestinian uprising, to call a halt to their campaign.
“We hope to reach positive conclusions in the next few weeks,” he said.
But Hamas’ overall leader Khaled Meshaal told the BBC that the organization has no plans to call a cease-fire.
On the Israeli political front, negotiations over the entry of the main opposition Labor party into a new governing coalition hit a stumbling block over next year’s state budget.
A Labor delegation stormed out of talks with representatives of the governing Likud faction in Tel Aviv on Monday night after failing to secure any concessions, especially over proposed pension cuts.
Dalia Itzik, the head of the Labor delegation, said Likud was treating her party with contempt. “What do they think, they can laugh at us? Let them manage without us,” she said.
However Likud officials said they were convinced the impasse could be resolved and more talks are expected today.
Sharon, stripped of a majority for more than six months, must bring Labor into a new government or face the prospect of early elections which would likely derail his plan to pull troops and settlers out of Gaza next year.
