Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Abbas orders militant clampdown
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has ordered his security forces to try to prevent militant attacks on Israelis, a Palestinian cabinet minister has said.
Mr Abbas gave "clear instructions to... prevent all kinds of violence including attacks on Israel", said Qadoura Fares.
Reports say Mr Abbas is due to travel to Gaza later to try to persuade militant groups to agree to a truce.
But Hamas said it reserved the right to resist and Gaza-based militants have continued to fire rockets into Israel.
In the latest violence, the Israeli army shot dead two gunmen in Gaza.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the Israeli army to take any action necessary to rein in militants in Gaza.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters news agency: "As long as occupation and aggression continue it will be natural for Palestinians to continue the resistance."
Cycle of violence
Tensions have soared since Palestinian suicide bombers killed six Israelis at a Gaza Strip crossing late on Thursday.
Israeli forces have killed about 20 Palestinians - including a number of civilians - during raids since Mr Abbas was elected as Palestinian Authority president on 9 January.
Palestinian Communications Minister Azzam al-Ahmed said after the cabinet meeting that both attacks by the Palestinian side and Israeli military operations must end.
"We have a decision to stop the cycle of violence," he said.
The BBC's Barbara Plett says it is likely the Palestinian security forces will try to prevent further rocket attacks on Israeli towns, but not try to arrest or disarm the militants.
Israel has demanded that the militias be dismantled.
Border tension
A 15-year-old Israeli girl was critically injured by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants at the town of Sderot just outside the borders of Gaza over the weekend.
Two rockets which fell in its suburbs on Monday caused no casualties but added to anger in the town where a general strike was under way to demand better protection.
Black flags of mourning flew in the town for four local residents killed in recent months.
"A government that cannot defend all its citizens is a government that has no right to rule," Mayor Eli Moyal told a rally.
Israeli troops killed the two Palestinian gunmen, both members of Islamic Jihad, on a road used by Jewish settlers leading to the Gush Katif settlement.
Shooting erupted when they were spotted near a border fence with an anti-tank missile launcher, the army said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4180971.stm
Reports say Mr Abbas is due to travel to Gaza later to try to persuade militant groups to agree to a truce.
But Hamas said it reserved the right to resist and Gaza-based militants have continued to fire rockets into Israel.
In the latest violence, the Israeli army shot dead two gunmen in Gaza.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the Israeli army to take any action necessary to rein in militants in Gaza.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters news agency: "As long as occupation and aggression continue it will be natural for Palestinians to continue the resistance."
Cycle of violence
Tensions have soared since Palestinian suicide bombers killed six Israelis at a Gaza Strip crossing late on Thursday.
Israeli forces have killed about 20 Palestinians - including a number of civilians - during raids since Mr Abbas was elected as Palestinian Authority president on 9 January.
Palestinian Communications Minister Azzam al-Ahmed said after the cabinet meeting that both attacks by the Palestinian side and Israeli military operations must end.
"We have a decision to stop the cycle of violence," he said.
The BBC's Barbara Plett says it is likely the Palestinian security forces will try to prevent further rocket attacks on Israeli towns, but not try to arrest or disarm the militants.
Israel has demanded that the militias be dismantled.
Border tension
A 15-year-old Israeli girl was critically injured by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants at the town of Sderot just outside the borders of Gaza over the weekend.
Two rockets which fell in its suburbs on Monday caused no casualties but added to anger in the town where a general strike was under way to demand better protection.
Black flags of mourning flew in the town for four local residents killed in recent months.
"A government that cannot defend all its citizens is a government that has no right to rule," Mayor Eli Moyal told a rally.
Israeli troops killed the two Palestinian gunmen, both members of Islamic Jihad, on a road used by Jewish settlers leading to the Gush Katif settlement.
Shooting erupted when they were spotted near a border fence with an anti-tank missile launcher, the army said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4180971.stm
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$190.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network
The new force, apparently to be headed by Abdul Razek Majada, commander of the National Security force, is supposed to be deployed in the Beit Lahia and Beit Hanun areas to prevent Qassam rocket fire at Sderot, and in the Khan Yunis area to prevent mortar fire at Gush Katif.
As of last night, the Israel Defense Forces had not spotted any activity by the Palestinian security forces indicating they are moving into new positions, but IDF sources admitted that Abbas has to be given some more time to see if his promises for action hold up.
"Israel expects him to take matters into his hands," said a senior source. "Meanwhile, all we've heard are words."
The army, in any case, is preparing for its own wide-scale operation into the three main areas from which Palestinian fire has been launched at Israeli targets: Khan Yunis, Jabalya, and Beit Lahia-Beit Hanun. The operation will be unprecedented in size in Gaza since the outbreak of the intifada - if the Palestinians do not take action.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian rhetoric against the armed irregulars has become unprecedented. While Abbas was telling Geneva Accord activists from Israel that "it will take a few weeks, perhaps a month, to organize the ranks of the Palestinian government and the security forces, but I don't intend to sit on the porch and watch without intervening," Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia was even blunter: "Anyone taking part in military activity in Gaza will be punished," he warned.
Abbas associates said the newly elected president was due in Gaza today to start giving orders directly to the heads of the security services there, and to untangle the personal rivalries between the heads of Fatah and the security services that so far are preventing the deployment of the intervention force in the areas where the armed men operate.
But a Palestinian source close to Abbas also said that the Palestinians need some assurances from Israel that they will cease assassinations and incursions into Palestinian areas, with the most important element being an Israeli understanding that the assassinations of activists from all the organizations, and not only Fatah, will torpedo any Palestinian move to end the violence.
Meanwhile, Abbas has begun putting into motion his plan to co-opt the armed irregulars into the Palestinian security forces, ordering the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the Fatah-affiliated group, integrated into the Palestinian Authority security apparatus.
Israel was not making any promises yesterday, except that it would resume contact with the Palestinians only after the PA takes action against the terrorists.
A government source said the Palestinians had received vehement messages from the international community demanding an end to the terrorism. Government sources in any case are doubtful that Abbas will manage to deploy the PA troopers in the areas where the mortars and Qassams are launched.
"We don't see any sign of Palestinian intention to combat the terror and cease the actions against Israel," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - who was angry when he saw headlines yesterday morning saying Israel was giving Abbas time to organize - told Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutake Machimura. "We have decided to freeze contact with them until they take action ... we decided to close the border passages because the terror groups have been targeting them."
Machimura met with Abbas before he saw Sharon, and told Sharon that Abbas had said that he also understands that he has to take action against the terrorists, and that the terror attack at Karni junction was aimed at the Abbas government.
"It may have been aimed at the Palestinians but the dead were Israelis, and we cannot agree to that," said Sharon.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom met with the foreign ambassadors in Israel yesterday, and his comments echoing Sharon prompted many of them to wonder if Israel was reasserting the "no partner" policy it had while Yasser Arafat was alive.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/528424.html