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Abbas wins fresh truce commitment in Gaza talks
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-10 08:03
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won a commitment from militant groups in
the occupied Gaza Strip on Thursday to maintain a truce with Israel that has
been hit by a flare-up of violence.
Abbas sealed the pledge in talks with leaders of 14 Palestinian political
factions including the Islamic militant group Hamas and the smaller Islamic
Jihad. But militants said they would still respond to any Israeli attacks.
"When we behave wisely we will be the winners and we will put Israel in the
corner, rather than have Israel put us in the corner," Abbas, calling on
militant groups not to take unilateral action, said later on Palestinian
television.
In this photo released by the Palestinian
Authority, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as
Abu Mazen, right, visits a high school in Gaza City Thursday June 9, 2005.
Abbas was also meeting militant groups in Gaza in an effort to resolve
domestic political disputes and keep a shaky truce with Israel alive.
Israel and the Palestinians are trying to keep the truce intact to allow
them to coordinate the Gaza pullout, scheduled to begin in mid-August.
[AP] | Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier
over Gaza throughout the talks, which came a day after an Israeli aircraft fired
three missiles at a Palestinian rocket crew in Gaza in response to mortar fire
at a Jewish settlement.
That was the latest escalation of Israeli-Palestinian violence since Abbas
coaxed militants into the truce he agreed with Israel in February. Israel wants
Abbas to enforce calm to ease a planned Israeli pullout from Gaza starting in
August.
"So far we are committed to calm ... but if they (the Israelis) violate it,
we will respond. If they abide by it, we will abide by it," said Khaled
al-Batsh, an Islamic Jihad leader.
Officials from Hamas, which is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state,
said the group would also maintain calm if Israel did the same. But a Hamas
spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said: "There will be a reaction to every (Israeli)
assault."
Hamas official Khalel Nofal (3rd L) sits
during a meeting between all Palestinian factions and President Mahmoud
Abbas (not in picture) in Gaza June 9, 2005. Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon are expected to hold their
second summit to discuss coordination on an Israeli evacuation in August
of all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West
Bank.[Reuters] | In the latest flare-up, militants vowed revenge after Israeli forces killed
an Islamic Jihad leader and a Palestinian policeman in the West Bank on Tuesday.
The army said the militant had planned to dispatch suicide bombers.
Rocket and mortar fire by militants later killed two Palestinian farm workers
and a Chinese laborer at a settlement in Gaza.
Israel has held off on any large-scale military response apparently because
of its reluctance to inflame the situation, which could complicate its Gaza
pullout plans.
PRESSURE FROM HAMAS
Hamas says it is committed to the truce, which has sharply reduced violence
but not stopped it altogether.
But the group is furious over Abbas's decision to postpone Palestinian
legislative elections that had been scheduled for July 17 and in which it had
been expected to mount a serious challenge to Fatah's dominance in parliament.
Israeli officials believe the latest mortar and rocket attacks are Hamas's
message to Abbas of the clout it wields.
Abbas, under pressure to set a fresh date for the legislative ballot, agreed
at the meeting to urge parliament in writing to approve an election law in line
with understandings reached with factions in ceasefire talks in Cairo in March.
The elections are not expected to be held before Israel completes its
evacuation of all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank in a
plan Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon bills as "disengagement" from conflict
with Palestinians.
Speaking on television, Abbas said he would press Sharon, at a meeting
scheduled for June 21, for clarifications over whether Israel would also
withdraw from a Gaza border corridor with Egypt, where militants smuggle in
weapons through tunnels.
He said the issue of safe passage arrangements, via Israel, for Palestinians
between Gaza and the West Bank and criteria for the release of Palestinian
prisoners in Israeli jails would also be on the agenda.
"When we talked with the Israelis and the Americans we told them that we do
not want a withdrawal that will turn Gaza into a big prison," Abbas said.
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