Abbas urges militants, Israel to preserve truce

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged
militants on Saturday to halt attacks on Israel and return to a
ceasefire that has been splintered by violence a month before
Israel’s planned pullout from Gaza.

Abbas also blamed Israel for the near collapse of the
five-month truce, and called on the Jewish state to help
preserve the ceasefire announced during a summit with Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in February.

The Palestinian president’s appeals came amid escalating
Israeli-Palestinian violence and vows of revenge by the
Islamist militant group Hamas over the killing of seven of its
gunmen, including four killed by air strikes in Gaza.

“I call upon all factions and parties to declare their
commitment to what we have agreed upon … the commitment to
calm,” he said in a speech broadcast on Palestinian television.

“We hold the Israeli government fully responsible for the
results of this policy, which represents a step backward from
our understandings and undermine chances of preserving calm,”
he added. “No one should expect the calm to be one-sided.”

The surge of violence, the worst since February, has raised
the prospect of a disruption to Israel’s planned withdrawal and
pullout of Jewish settlers from occupied Gaza next month.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arranged an unscheduled
visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories next week to
try to keep the Gaza withdrawal on track. Washington sees it as
a possible springboard to renewed peace talks.

Israel said it had to take action because Abbas, struggling
to keep control in the face of a growing challenge by
militants, had failed to rein in armed groups.

A suicide bomber killed five Israelis in a coastal town on
Tuesday. Israel responded by raiding the West Bank town of
Tulkarm and the city of Nablus, killing a policeman and a
militant. Militants replied with rocket and mortar strikes,
killing an Israeli woman on Thursday.

Abbas said he would not tolerate any further violations by
Palestinian militants. He also promised he would not allow any
further internal fighting like the gunbattles in recent days
between Hamas gunmen and Palestinian police trying to prevent
continuing volleys of rocket and mortar fire at Israeli
targets.

“Palestinian blood is holy and shedding it is a red line,”
Abbas said of the clashes that killed two teenagers and raised
fears among Palestinians of civil war.

HAMAS VOWS REVENGE

Abbas wants to avert Israeli army incursions into Gaza, but
he has to tread carefully against Hamas because of its military
and political clout.

“He has to go out and get the terror groups,” a senior
Israeli official said in response to Abbas’s speech. Israel has
said it was not happy with his approach of trying to coax
militants to silence their arms.

Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction, said it was
disappointed that Abbas was not doing more to bring
international pressure on Israel, and said it reserved the
right to avenge what it called “crimes by the Zionist enemy.”

“Revenge, revenge,” shouted thousands of mourners in Gaza
at the funerals of four of the gunmen killed on Friday in
Israeli missile strikes while transporting rockets in their
car.

Israel stepped up air strikes on Friday night, pounding
three workshops the army said were used by Hamas to produce
weapons — a charge denied by witnesses. Militants hit back,
firing two rockets at an Israeli town near Gaza on Saturday but
causing no casualties.

Sharon said on Friday the army would put a stop to rocket
barrages to make sure the Gaza withdrawal was not carried out
“under fire.”

Israeli officials have said they might carry out wide-scale
raids and reoccupy Palestinian areas near the 21 settlements
due to be evacuated. Some 8,500 settlers will be removed from
Gaza, where they live cloistered from 1.3 million Palestinians.

Palestinian residents said they saw Israeli tanks being
moved into Gaza settlements on Friday. News reports quoted
Israeli security sources saying the army might raid militant
strongholds in the coming days to stop the rocket launches.
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Ori
Lewis and Megan Goldin in Jerusalem)