Hamas Will Continue Intefadeh
dailynews.yahoo.com
By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer
June 5th. JERUSALEM (AP) - Hamas is not bound by the cease-fire called by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) and will continue the intefadeh, the militant group's spiritual leader said Tuesday, as scattered reports of gunfire in Palestinian areas testified to the fragility of the truce.
Hamas support for the cease-fire Arafat called Saturday is seen as vital to its success. The Islamic group said the bomber who blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv disco on Friday night, killing 20 other young people, was a Hamas member. Hamas has claimed many bomb attacks against Israel.
Early Tuesday, a leaflet signed in the name of the militant wings of Hamas and Arafat's Fatah (news - web sites) group said a cease-fire would be respected. However, within hours key Hamas figures were disputing the idea and suggesting the leaflet might not be authentic.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas' spiritual leader, said the group wants ``to tell the world that our Palestinian people are not going to kneel down, will not surrender and will continue in this intefadeh.''
``When we are talking about the so-called cease-fire, this means between two armies,'' Yassin told The Associated Press. ``We are not an army. We are people who defend themselves and work against the aggression.''
A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar, said Hamas will ''continue the intefadeh by all means and everywhere in occupied Palestine of 1948 or in occupied lands in 1967.''
Still, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said a reduction of Palestinian violence in recent days shows a convincing cease-fire had begun.
``You can congratulate us on the beginning, but not on the completion,'' Peres said. Israel demands eight weeks of quiet before peace negotiations can be resumed while the Palestinians want only four weeks, Peres told Army radio.
Despite international efforts to calm tempers, several Palestinians were injured Tuesday in clashes in Hebron and Ramallah in the West Bank, Palestinian witnesses said.
Also in the West Bank, Ashraf Mahmoud Bardawil, 27, a Fatah activist in the Tulkarem area, was critically injured in an explosion in his car, according to a local hospital director and Bardawil's family. The cause wasn't clear.
In the Gaza Strip (news - web sites), Yassin was among 2,000 Palestinians marking the 34th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast war with a march. Demonstrators chanted ``The intefadeh will continue until victory!'' and carried posters of Arafat and Yassin.
Jihad Nasar, a 23-year-old student in the Islamic University, said Palestinians will not stop the intefadeh, or uprising, but said continuing resistance does not contradict Arafat's decision Saturday to call a cease-fire.
``By accepting a cease-fire, President Arafat sent an invitation to the aggressors to stop their aggression, but we are not going to accept any more killing by them,'' Nasar said.
Arafat called a meeting of his Fatah leadership and Hamas representatives late Monday. A joint statement said they would halt attacks in Israel as of midnight to give Israel a chance to ``stop assassination and stop killing and destruction.''
``We are going to stop our military actions in our lands,'' read the leaflet released in the names of the military wings of Hamas and Fatah.
But Yassin within hours denied any knowledge of the statement.
Another militant group, Islamic Jihad, did not take part in Monday night's meeting, and the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, formally part of the PLO but opposed to peace with Israel, issued conflicting statements.
Nafez Azam, spokesman of the Islamic Jihad, suggested the group would give a cease-fire a chance. ``We are respecting all the decisions taken by any Palestinian movement,'' he said.
North of Ramallah, Israeli soldiers opened fire Tuesday with rubber-coated steel bullets on Palestinians throwing stones after the army refused to let them by a checkpoint, Palestinian witnesses said. Ten Palestinians were injured. The army said it fired on 600 demonstrators to disperse them.
In Hebron, Palestinian doctors said at least 2 people among about 30 people throwing stones and Molotov cocktails were injured by rubber bullets. An Israeli army spokesman said only that a Palestinian in Hebron threw an iron bar at soldiers who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. It wasn't clear if the incidents were the same.
Near the city, an exchange of fire erupted between security forces of the two sides and one Palestinian officer was injured in the leg. The Israeli army said soldiers shot after they were fired on.
In the West Bank, Palestinian gunmen fired at Israeli cars at two points early Tuesday but no injuries were reported.
Despite the relative reduction of violence in the eight months of fighting, Palestinian leaders insisted a cease-fire would not end their struggle against Israel.
West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who attended the meeting with Arafat, said the cease-fire applies only to areas under full Palestinian control. Elsewhere, he said, ``resisting occupation is a legitimate right of the Palestinians.''
On Monday, West Bank Palestinian security chief Jibril Rajoub had pledged a ``100 percent effort'' to enforce the cease-fire.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) urged Arafat in a telephone call late Monday to arrest those responsible for the Tel Aviv nightclub bombing, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. |
