Ramallah (West Bank), Dec 07: Palestinian officials
today flatly rejected Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
claims that al-Qaeda members had penetrated the Gaza Strip,
and that Israel was circumventing Yasser Arafat in secret
talks with the Palestinian leadership.
As Israel came in for more international criticism for
its latest army operation in the Gaza Strip, the government
said Israel regretted any civilian victims, but accused
Palestinian militants of using "human shields."
Palestinian officials, meanwhile, said the violence was
making a delay in elections planned for next month
increasingly likely.
In a television interview set to air today, Sharon said
his government was already engaged "secretly" in talks with
people "from the Palestinian leadership," but not Arafat.
He said there was "definitely" an alternative to Arafat,
but did not elaborate in the excerpts broadcast last night.
Government spokesman Avi Pazner said the contacts had
been going on "for a few months already." He said they would
not reveal the identity of the contacts to avoid retribution
against them by "Arafat and his cronies."
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat rejected the
statements as "unfounded and baseless" and said the hard-line
Sharon was trying to appeal to more moderate voters ahead of
Israel's own elections on January 28.
Arafat called the al-Qaeda charge "a big, big, big, big
lie to cover his attacks and his crimes against our people
everywhere, from Rafah to Jenin and in between."
Bureau Report
