Hamas announces suicide attacks halt

12/22/2001

By IBRAHIM BARZAK
Associated Press Writer

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — For the first time in 15 months of fighting, the Islamic militant group Hamas announced Friday that it is suspending suicide bombings and mortar attacks in Israel, improving chances for a U.S.-led truce to take hold.

Despite that promise, tensions between militants and Palestinian police trying to enforce a cease-fire continued to run high. Six Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded Friday in a gun battle in a Gaza refugee camp.

Israel dismissed the Hamas announcement as a tactical move aimed at easing international pressure on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to crack down on Islamic militants.

``Hamas is doing what Arafat wants from them. He (Arafat) wants several days of quiet so that public opinion will be on his and the Palestinian Authority's side,'' said Gideon Meir, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official.

Despite the Hamas moratorium, the potential for violence remained high. The smaller Islamic Jihad group announced from Lebanon that it was not suspending attacks, and the Hamas decision does not apply to the West Bank and Gaza Strip where some 200,000 Jewish settlers live.

Aides to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Friday that Israel would continue to retaliate harshly for attacks.

Islamic militants have killed scores of Israelis since September 2000, including 37 this month alone. In all, more than 840 people have died on the Palestinian side and more than 240 on the Israeli side.

Last weekend, Arafat renewed his call for a truce with Israel, demanding a halt to suicide and mortar attacks. Hamas initially resisted, and a senior Palestinian official said Friday's announcement was a result of protracted negotiations between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

Arafat's crackdown on militants — his security forces have arrested dozens of suspects and shut down some Hamas offices and mortar factories — has been accompanied by bloody confrontations. Since Thursday, seven Palestinians have been killed and at least 94 hurt in gun battles between militants and Palestinian police.

The deadliest fight erupted Friday in the Jebaliya refugee camp north of Gaza City during the funeral of an Islamic Jihad supporter. As thousands of mourners passed the local police station, gunmen in the crowd shot at officers who returned fire. The battle went on for more than an hour, despite appeals from mosque preachers and the head of Islamic Jihad in the camp to stop shooting.

In the chaos, bystanders ran in all directions, some seeking cover behind cars. One women held her baby, swaddled in a blanket, close to her chest as she fled the scene. An older man carried a boy, who appeared to be about 10 years old and was screaming in pain from a bullet wound in the leg.

In all, six Palestinians were killed in Jebaliya, including at least two Islamic Jihad gunmen, and about 55 people were wounded, doctors said. Reporters, who are normally granted free access to hospitals after Israeli attacks, were barred from speaking to the wounded. Friday's death toll was the second-highest as a result of internal fighting since the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994.

Ayoub Katari, a 42-year-old Jebaliya resident, watched the fighting with disdain. ``These bullets should target the enemy and not each other,'' Katari said over the crackle of gunfire. ``Both sides are mistaken.''

The Hamas announcement, faxed to news agencies, said attacks were being suspended ``until further notice.'' A Hamas leader in Gaza, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who has eluded several Palestinian police attempts to arrest him, said Friday that the Palestinians retained the right ``to respond to Israeli crimes,'' suggesting the moratorium would be called off in the event of Israeli military strikes.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he told Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Friday that the Hamas move puts the ball in Israel's court. Erekat said he now expects Israel to stop pre-emptive strikes on suspected Palestinian militants and to lift its blockade of Palestinian towns and villages.

Israel has refrained from air strikes and killings of suspected militants since Arafat's speech Sunday. However, Israeli leaders remained skeptical of Arafat's intentions.

``The central question we need to ask is whether the Palestinians have made a strategic decision that says, 'No more terror and a return to negotiations.' The answer is no,'' Israel's armed forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, said Friday.

Arafat acted after coming under intense pressure from Europe and the United States to do more to prevent attacks on Israelis and after Israel's government declared last week that he was ``irrelevant'' to its fight against terrorism.

It was not immediately clear whether the Hamas announcement would help revive a truce mission by U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni, who left the region last weekend after three weeks of fruitless talks.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday that Zinni would return to the region only ``when his presence can be effective in moving towards a durable cease-fire.''