Palestinian militants agree to halt attacks

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9851854/

10/30/05

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have agreed to halt rocket attacks on Israel, Palestinian Interior Ministry officials said Sunday.

The halt in rocket fire comes after days of airstrikes and artillery fire by the Israeli army aimed at the Islamic Jihad militant group, responsible for a suicide bombing last week that killed five Israelis in the coastal city of Hadera. Palestinian officials said the declaration was expected to bring an end to the Israeli attacks.

The Interior Ministry officials spoke on condition of anonymity, pending the release of an official statement later in the day. Palestinian factions, including the militant groups, were scheduled to meet Sunday night.

Earlier Sunday, Israel’s Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz vowed to wage war on Islamic Jihad until its capabilities are wiped out.

'A broad operation against terrorism'
Israel responded Thursday with an airstrike on a car in the Gaza Strip targeting Islamic Jihad militants, but it also killed people standing nearby in crowded streets.

“We are carrying out a broad operation against terrorism, a broad operation against the Islamic Jihad infrastructure in light of Islamic Jihad’s intention to continue with suicide bombings,” Mofaz said ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting.

“We are making huge efforts to prevent these attacks ... and this activity will continue until we can say that the Islamic Jihad infrastructure can no longer carry out suicide bombings,” he added.

Early Saturday, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at open areas in northern Gaza and ground troops set up a second artillery battery near the coastal strip — part of an intensifying campaign against Palestinian rocket fire.

Israeli airstrikes have killed eight Palestinians in Gaza this week, including a militant whose car was struck Friday evening while he was on a mission to fire rockets.

Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef told his security chiefs that “firm and serious action” would be taken against facilities used to manufacture or store weapons, his office said Saturday.

But there was no talk of disarming militants, as Israel has demanded, and the statement said Palestinian security forces “would not enter any house looking for weapons.”

Israeli disagreement over Abbas
Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres warned it would be a serious mistake to sideline Mahmoud Abbas, signaling growing disagreement within the Israeli government over how to deal with the Palestinian leader.

Peres spoke after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced he will shun Abbas until he cracks down on militants, and after Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told an Israeli newspaper that Abbas is too weak and isolated to negotiate a peace deal.

The Sharon government’s criticism of Abbas is unprecedented. The international community has urged Israel to work with Abbas, a moderate who opposes violence but also refuses to disarm militant groups by force, citing fear of civil war.

Peres said Israel could not afford to sideline Abbas.

“When you say there is no partner, then only one partner is left, the terrorists. This is a mistake of the first order,” Peres told Israel Radio.

Leaflets dropped over Gaza
No injuries were reported in Saturday’s missile strikes on northern Gaza, but roads and water and sewage lines were heavily damaged, and electricity in the area was knocked out when the main transformer was hit. One of the missiles tore a deep crater in a sandy field.

Israel also deployed a second artillery battery near southern Gaza, the army said Saturday. A first battery was set up near northern Gaza after the Israeli pullout in September. Artillery fire into Gaza is seen as a last resort, because it poses a higher risk of harming Palestinian civilians than missile strikes.

Israeli military aircraft dropped leaflets in Gaza on Saturday urging Palestinians to report information they might have about planned rocket attacks and appealing to their longing for an end to violence. An Arabic-language recording at the hotline listed on the leaflet asked callers to leave a message, while a Hebrew-language recording said the voice mailbox was full.

Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel often receive death sentences in Palestinian courts or are killed by militant groups.

Missile strike
On Friday evening, an Israeli missile hit a car carrying three members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a violent offshoot of Abbas’ Fatah movement. The military said the three had been on a mission to fire rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot. No hits were reported in Sderot, but Al Aqsa said an Israeli drone targeted its members after the rockets were fired.

An Al Aqsa spokesman, using the code name Abu Ahmed, said Israel would “pay a heavy price for this crime.”

The missile strike reduced the white Subaru to a charred and twisted shell. The dead man was identified as Majid Natat, 28. Another militant was injured and a third escaped before the missile hit, witnesses said.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian militants detonated a car bomb near an Israeli combat ambulance early Saturday, causing damage but no injuries, the military said. Sporadic exchanges of fire were heard in the city after the blast.

Stabbing attempts
Israeli security forces averted two stabbing attempts in the town of Hebron, police said. A 16-year-old Palestinian girl was detained near a Jewish shrine Saturday morning after troops found four knives in her bag, said Superintendent Shlomi Sagi, the Israeli police spokesman for the West Bank. The girl intended to stab a Jewish soldier, police officer or settler near the Cave of the Patriarchs, Sagi said.

On Friday evening, security forces stopped a 21-year-old Palestinian man walking toward the Jewish settlement in Hebron and discovered he was carrying a concealed knife with which he planned to stab settlers, Sagi added.

The violence this week began Monday with Israel’s killing of a top Islamic Jihad gunman. An Islamic Jihad revenge bombing Wednesday killed five Israelis, and on Thursday missiles fired at a car from Israeli aircraft killed four Islamic Jihad members and three bystanders.

The authors of the “road map” peace plan — the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union — took a strong stand against Palestinian militants Friday, demanding that Syria immediately shut the offices of the militant Islamic Jihad group in Damascus and prevent use of Syrian territory for acts of terror.

Islamic Jihad has been responsible for the most violent attacks against Israeli targets since a February cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians, including a suicide bombing Wednesday.