GAZA CITY, 2 February 2005 — Israel put on hold the transfer of security control in West Bank towns to the Palestinians, citing resumption of Palestinian rocket attack on Jewish settlements.
Hamas activists fired volleys of mortars into Gaza settlements on Monday and yesterday in retaliation for the killing of a Palestinian schoolgirl in Israeli tank fire. A bullet hit the 10-year-old in the face as she was lining up in the yard of a United Nations Relief and Works Agency school in Rafah. A seven-year-old girl was injured in the hand.
“We will not allow the daily Zionist aggression to go unanswered,” warned a joint leaflet signed by the armed wings of eight Palestinian factions. “Any cease-fire agreement will succeed only if the Zionist enemy accepts our terms, including ending all forms of aggression and releasing prisoners,” it added.
Palestinians had been preparing to take control in the city of Ramallah, as well as Qalqilya, Jericho and Tulkarm yesterday but talks between Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and former Palestinian Security Minister Mohammed Dahlan on the issue on Monday night ended without agreement.
Dahlan told reporters no date for a transfer had been agreed and that he would meet with Mofaz again on Thursday “to conclude an agreement on all the points of understanding.” Israeli sources said Mofaz had told Dahlan there would be no transfers in the West Bank until there was a complete halt to the mortar attacks in Gaza.
Dahlan warned at a news conference that the Palestinian Authority would not allow “any group to just do what it wants and impose it will on the Palestinian leadership.”
— Additional input from agencies
