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Islamic Jihad agrees to halt Gaza rocket fire

Posted on: Sunday, 30 October 2005, 09:40 CST

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA, Oct 30 - Islamic Jihad militants agreed on Sunday to halt rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip unless there are more Israeli air raids on the territory, Palestinian officials said.

One of the worst surges of violence since a truce began almost nine months ago has soured hopes that Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip in September could energize peacemaking.

The officials said the Palestinian Authority had reached a deal with Islamic Jihad for a halt to the cross-border rocket attacks, which prompted strikes from Israel that killed at least nine Palestinians, most of them militants.

There had been no rocket attacks from Gaza by 3 p.m. (1 p.m. GMT) on Sunday and no Israeli air raids either.

Khaled al-Batsh, a leader for Islamic Jihad in Gaza said, "if the enemy stops its attacks, our commitment to calm will be maintained."

Israeli officials said if rocket fire from Gaza stopped then raids there would stop too, but that operations against Islamic Jihad would continue following a suicide bombing by the group that killed five Israelis on Wednesday.

"There is an intent to continue it until they cannot carry out any more suicide bombings," Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the cabinet.

Israeli officials said they expected operations against Islamic Jihad to be concentrated in the West Bank.

Islamic Jihad began the latest round of rocket fire from Gaza and carried out the suicide attack at a market in the city of Hadera following Israel's killing of one of its top commanders in the West Bank.

Islamic Jihad, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, did not say that it would halt suicide bombings as part of its renewed commitment to the truce.

The United States had appealed to Israel for caution in its assaults on militants, while also appealing to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to take action to rein in the armed groups waging an uprising since 2000.

Palestinians are meant to start disarming the factions under a U.S.-backed "road map," but Abbas has said that to use force could risk civil war. Israel has not met its own road map commitment to freeze West Bank settlement building.

Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Youssef said on Saturday his forces would confiscate guns on the streets and "deal firmly" with workshops making weapons or explosives. There was no immediate sign of action.

Source: REUTERS

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