GAZA CITY, 24 May 2007 — In an attempt to restore a cease-fire with Israel, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas yesterday made a new push for a deal. The two leaders met for the first time since the Hamas-Fatah fighting broke out two weeks ago killing more than 50 Palestinians. The two sides reached a truce over the weekend, but tensions remain high as a key dispute over control of the security forces remains unresolved.
Intensified Hamas rocket fire that accompanied the Palestinian infighting touched off a week of Israeli airstrikes that have killed more than 40 Palestinians.
Haniyeh aide Ahmed Yousef said a renewed cease-fire with Israel would have to be comprehensive, and include the West Bank in addition to Gaza. The previous truce, brokered in November, applied only to the Gaza-Israel border, and Israel rejected repeated Palestinian demands that it also halt arrest raids in the West Bank. “If it is going to be for Gaza only, then no one will be able to convince the Palestinian resistance factions to commit to that,” Yousef said.
The meeting ended with the two sides agreeing their factions would meet again.
“We are working to recommit to the truce,” Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rudeina said. Haniyeh aide Ghazi Hamad said in a statement that the two leaders called on the international community “to protect the Palestinians and pressure Israel to stop the attacks.”
Salah Bardawil, a Hamas spokesman, said Israel must stop its attacks if there is to be a cease-fire. “There is no room to talk about a truce while there is Israeli aggression and escalation,” he said.
Abu Hamza, of Islamic Jihad’s military wing, said a truce should be conditioned on Israel ending its attacks on fighter groups, extending the cease-fire to the West Bank, and retracting threats to go after militant leaders.
Abbas arrived in tense Gaza on Tuesday under unprecedented security. Five identical black Mercedes limousines drove in his convoy to confuse potential attackers. Presidential security forces locked down central Gaza thoroughfares and marksmen staked out rooftop vantage points. Abbas aides have said there was concern he might be targeted on his drive from the Israeli border crossing to Gaza City.
On Tuesday evening, he held talks with Egyptian mediators in Gaza City, who updated him on efforts to contain the internal fighting and halt rocket fire.
Hamas fighters, meanwhile, fired only one rocket toward the Israeli border town of Sderot yesterday, a letup after far heavier barrages in preceding days, including one that killed an Israeli woman.
Israel, in turn, fired missiles at suspected Hamas weapons workshops in Gaza City and the Jabaliya refugee camp. The Jabaliya strike injured six people, including a pregnant woman and a teenage boy.
In a new tactic, Israeli troops also made a brief foray deeper into Gaza early yesterday, searching several homes about half a mile from the border and briefly detaining seven Palestinians. Soldiers left behind handwritten notes warning that houses could be demolished if rockets are fired from them.
Wary of Israeli strikes, leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian groups in Gaza have lowered their profiles, turning off cell phones and staying off the streets.
In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri threatened harsh retaliation if the group’s leaders were attacked. “Harming ... any of Hamas’ leadership will cost the occupation dearly,” he said. “This will mean responses.” He did not elaborate.
— With input from agencies
