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Hamas resolves to suspend suicide attacks against Israel
he militant Islamic group Hamas said on Friday it was suspending suicide attacks inside Israel and mortar bomb attacks against Israeli targets.
he militant Islamic group Hamas said on Friday it was suspending suicide attacks inside Israel
and mortar bomb attacks against Israeli targets.
Hamas, the main group behind a recent wave of suicide
bombings, took the decision after a meeting overnight between
senior Hamas leaders and Palestinian Authority officials in
the Gaza Strip.
"Yes -- I can say that Hamas issued that statement and
Hamas said clearly that for a while Hamas will stop martyr
operations
inside Palestine -- the occupied part of 1948. And again, as
regard with mortar shooting", Abdel Azziz al-Rantissi, a
Hamas
leader, told reporters.
The move followed overnight fighting in the Gaza Strip between members of the Palestinian Authority security forces and Islamic militants in which Muhammed Imgayyad, a 17 year-old teenager, was killed and 16 people were wounded. But Hamas appeared to be leaving the door open to attacks against Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Hamas is the main organisation behind a recent wave of suicide bombings in which 29 people have been killed in Israel over the past month. The movement, and the militant Islamic Jehad, reject any compromise with Israel and have long attacked targets inside the Jewish state. Other factions, such as Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah, recognise Israel and accept a two-state solution to the conflict. They tend to limit their attacks to Jewish settlers on Arab territory. Arafat has come under intense international pressure to rein in militants whose attacks have drawn Israeli F-16 bombing raids and ground incursions into Palestinian territory, including the deployment of Israeli troops near his main West Bank office.
"I will not accept at all any kind of arrest and I have full right to be free and to continue my struggle against the occupation," said Rantissi a day after Palestinian police tried arresting him.
Israel had responded to the statement by saying that facts on the ground will judge the changes. "If we have the quite necessary -- the real stop of terrorism -- the real ceasefire which is necessary so much for all of us here then that is the all way -- the fact on the ground -- that will make the change -- the necessary change for us," Yaffa Ben Ari, Israeli foreign ministry spokeswoman, said on Friday.
Bureau Report
The move followed overnight fighting in the Gaza Strip between members of the Palestinian Authority security forces and Islamic militants in which Muhammed Imgayyad, a 17 year-old teenager, was killed and 16 people were wounded. But Hamas appeared to be leaving the door open to attacks against Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Hamas is the main organisation behind a recent wave of suicide bombings in which 29 people have been killed in Israel over the past month. The movement, and the militant Islamic Jehad, reject any compromise with Israel and have long attacked targets inside the Jewish state. Other factions, such as Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah, recognise Israel and accept a two-state solution to the conflict. They tend to limit their attacks to Jewish settlers on Arab territory. Arafat has come under intense international pressure to rein in militants whose attacks have drawn Israeli F-16 bombing raids and ground incursions into Palestinian territory, including the deployment of Israeli troops near his main West Bank office.
"I will not accept at all any kind of arrest and I have full right to be free and to continue my struggle against the occupation," said Rantissi a day after Palestinian police tried arresting him.
Israel had responded to the statement by saying that facts on the ground will judge the changes. "If we have the quite necessary -- the real stop of terrorism -- the real ceasefire which is necessary so much for all of us here then that is the all way -- the fact on the ground -- that will make the change -- the necessary change for us," Yaffa Ben Ari, Israeli foreign ministry spokeswoman, said on Friday.
Bureau Report