Jerusalem, Aug 10: Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom said today that the diplomatic process with the Palestinians was on hold and that Israel saw the current security situation in Palestinian areas as "virtually intolerable."
The comments followed a threat by the militant Hamas group to punish Israel for raiding a bomb factory in a West Bank refugee camp on Friday. Two Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in the raid. A Palestinian stone thrower was killed by Israeli troops in a related incident.

In interviews on army radio and Israel radio, Shalom accused the Palestinians of failing to disarm militant groups -- as required by the US-sponsored "road map" for Middle East peace -- and said Palestinian militants were exploiting a cease-fire to improve their military capabilities.
"The extremist groups have exploited this time to dig tunnels, smuggle weapons, train their forces, try to increase the range of their Qassam (rockets), move the missiles to the West Bank -- and of course all of these things are unacceptable from our point of view," Shalom told Israel radio.
On army radio, he said "the current situation from our point is view is virtually intolerable."



The Palestinians had not fulfilled their responsibilities, he said, "so all of this now is on hold."


Bureau Report