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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richnorth who wrote (20506)	12/7/2002 11:56:48 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27666

Palestinians Reject Sharon's Claim of Secret Negotiations, Al Qaeda in Gaza URL: foxnews.com Saturday, December 07, 2002 RAMALLAH, West Bank — A senior Palestinian official on Saturday rejected as "baseless" claims by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that his government is negotiating "secretly" with Palestinians other than Yasser Arafat. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the hard-line Sharon was trying to appeal to more moderate voters ahead of Israel's elections Jan. 28. In a television interview aired Saturday, Sharon said the secret talks had been held with people "from the Palestinian leadership" — but not Arafat. He said there was "definitely" an alternative to Arafat, but did not elaborate. Government spokesman Avi Pazner said contacts had been going on "for a few months" but would not reveal the identity of the contacts to avoid retribution against them by "Arafat and his cronies." The Palestinans also rejected Sharon's claim Thursday that a few Al Qaeda members had penetrated Gaza and southern Lebanon and were working to target Israel. Sharon did not present any evidence. Arafat, speaking outside his Ramallah headquarters, called the Al Qaeda charge "a big, big, big, big lie to cover his attacks and his crimes against our people." Pazner said the government stood by its charge and would "redouble and triple our efforts to try and uproot terrorism in the Gaza Strip before Al Qaeda can penetrate deeper." Palestinian officials said they were holding three suspects who believed they were getting money from Al Qaeda to buy weapons and recruit members in the Gaza Strip. However, the trio was being manipulated by Israeli security, officials said. "There is no relation between Al Qaeda and Usama bin Laden and these cases," said Rashid Abu Shbak, the head of preventive security in Gaza. "There are only imaginary cells that Israeli security agents have planted in the Gaza Strip." He did not identify the suspects or provide evidence implicating Israelis. As Israel received more international criticism for its latest army operation in the Gaza Strip — which killed 10 Palestinians, including two U.N. workers — the government said Israel regretted civilian victims but accused Palestinian militants of using "human shields." Palestinian officials said the violence was making a delay in elections, planned for next month, increasingly likely. "If the situation on the ground remains as it is, because of the Israeli incursions, we as a commission cannot proceed," said Ali Jerbawi, an election committee member, after a meeting also attended by Arafat. Holding Palestinian elections was a vital part of reforms in Arafat's administration, which Israel and the U.S. government say are a condition for progress toward peace. But Sharon has also demanded Arafat's replacement as a condition for moving forward with a U.S.-sponsored peace plan that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. The Israeli attack that drew international criticism was on a crowded refugee camp in Gaza, which took place as Muslims celebrated Eid el-Fitr, the four-day festival marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. The Islamic militant group Hamas said six of the 10 killed were its activists, at least one from its military wing, according to a statement received by the Shiite Muslim guerrilla group Hezbollah's television station in Lebanon. The European Union foreign policy representative, Javier Solana, said an operation in such a densely populated area could "only lead to the loss of innocent lives." A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York renewed calls for Israel to "refrain from the excessive and disproportionate use of deadly force in civilian areas." Israeli officials called the Bureij Camp foray a "pinpoint operation" aimed at arresting Aiman Shasniyeh, a local leader for the Popular Resistance Committee, who the military believes was behind a bomb attack on a tank that killed three soldiers in March. Troops failed to find Shasniyeh but blew up his house. The casualties came when gunbattles erupted with Palestinian militants in the camp. "Unfortunately, there were also some civilian victims," Pazner said. "We deeply regret those victims. But they are a result of the fact that terrorists hide among the civilian population and try to use them as literally human shields." He also noted that one of the two U.N. staff members killed — Usama Hassan Tahrawi, 31, a school attendant — was listed by Hamas as among its victims. "This is extremely disturbing," he said. Palestinian officials called on the U.N. Security Council to hold a special session on the violence and consider sending international observers to the region