Palestinians 'to halt attacks on Israel'
Palestinian militants declared a halt to attacks on Israel for the rest of this year, their longest ever ceasefire promise and a success for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
But they warned that the truce will collapse if Israel does not hold its own fire and release Palestinian prisoners.
Abbas had been seeking a public commitment from the armed groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to a long-term ceasefire in order to put pressure on Israel to move forward in the peace process – and the step brought praise from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Sharon said the announcement yesterday was a “positive first step”, though he insisted that for greater progress to take place “terrorist organisations cannot continue to exist as armed groups”.
A top aide to Sharon, Ranaan Gissin, said Israel would continue to refrain from military action as long as Palestinians cease violence against Israelis.
The declaration was agreed to by the 13 main Palestinian factions including Hamas and Jihad after three days of talks in 6th of October City, outside Cairo. It extends a shaky cease-fire that began in early February, and Abbas is hoping that it will prove more durable than ones in the past.
But Hamas and Jihad – the main groups that have waged a campaign of violence against Israel – preserved a broad loophole allowing them to call an end to the ceasefire.
The declaration says the halt in violence is conditional on Israel’s halting all military operations against Palestinians and releasing all 8,000 Palestinian prisoners, a step Israel has shown no sign of taking.
“What has been agreed upon is that the period of calm will have an upper time limit which is the end of the year,” said Mohammed Nazzal, a Hamas leader. “But ending the period of calm will be in our hands, especially if there is no adherence to the conditions.”
The final agreement issued by the factions, including Abbas’ ruling Fatah party, underlined that the Palestinians maintain their “right to resistance in order to end the Israeli occupation.”
The US State Department yesterday cautiously welcomed yesterday’s development.
Deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said the steps “certainly were not negative” but he called them “incremental” and ”very provisional.” He added that “they don’t go as far as we would like”.
What is important, he said, “is to get to the root cause of all this, which is the acceptance of violence as a means to solve a problem”.
