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Abbas urges militants, Israel to preserve truce

Posted on: Saturday, 16 July 2005, 19:37 CDT

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)

Source: REUTERS

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