Gaza City, Aug 12: Palestinian factions today inched toward a deal to end attacks inside Israel, as bloodletting carried on in the West Bank and Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon geared for snap elections if his austerity budget fails. As talks went on behind closed doors, a member of the al Aqsa martyrs brigades, an armed wing of Arafat's fatah movement, was shot dead by Israeli forces near the West Bank town of Jenin and an Israeli soldier was injured by a roadside bomb in the same area.
A senior Fatah official told reporters that after talks late yesterday, his faction agreed with a Palestinian Authority call for an end to attacks inside Israel, although there was no appeal for a truce in the Palestinian territories.
"Fatah confirmed at the last meeting that it will confine its operations to the areas of the 1967 territories," said Zacharia al-Agha, head of Fatah in the Gaza Strip and a member of the executive committee of the PLO. He said the confirmation "applies to all Fatah groups," although he did not specifically name the al Aqsa martyrs brigades, whose gunmen and bombers ignored previous appeals by Arafat for an end to attacks inside Israel.
Palestinian officials said all groups, including the radical Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic jihad, which have spearheaded 22 months of violent conflict, were mulling the agreement to freeze attacks inside Israel and rather carry out strikes only in the occupied territories. Bureau Report