Qorei said such attacks lead to an “accumulation of hatred and loss of ‎confidence (AFP) ‎

By Moatesem Al-Meniawi & Mohammad Yassin, IOL Correspondents

RAMALLAH, April 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei came under heavy fire Thursday, April 1, one day after he condemned resistance attacks against Israel’s long-standing occupation.

Addressing parliament in this West Bank city, Qorei said the attacks are an obstacle to peace, in the strongest  condemnation of the attacks against Israeli forces, Reuters said.

“The resistance of the Palestinian people to Israeli occupation crimes has suffered from attacks that have targeted Israeli civilians,” Qorei told the lawmakers.

He urged Palestinian restraint following Israel's March 22 assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, for which the group members have vowed bloody revenge.

Qorei said such attacks lead to an “accumulation of hatred and loss of confidence between the two peoples and place obstacles in the path of reviving the peace process”.

Most, if not all, Palestinian resistance groups, have stressed that they are against attacking civilians of both sides, but accused the Israeli government of dragging them on the way, said Amin Maqboul, a Fatah member.

He took the blame to the Israeli army, which carry out almost-daily massive raids on occupied areas, detaining and opening random fire on civilians, triggering a mutual recriminations.

Hamas hinted in December 2003 at readiness to halt resistance operations on Israeli civilians if Israel ceased its attacks on the Palestinian people. But the gesture was categorically rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

‘Vehemently Rejected’

‎“We reject these statements vehemently and completely,” Ghazal ‎

Palestinian resistance groups dismissed the premier’s statements as untimely and unreflective of the situation on the ground, since coming a few days after the killing of the wheelchair-bound Sheikh Yassin by Israeli warplanes on his way from mosque prayers.

“We reject these statements vehemently and completely,” said Mohamed Ghazal, a Hamas leader in the West Bank.

Ruling out no foreign pressures, Ghazal urged Qorei to think it over, as the remarks “come at odds with the Palestinian rule calling for continued resistance to occupation.

Opinion polls show strong Palestinian grass-roots support for attacks against occupation forces, Reuters said a few hours after the Palestinian senior official spewed out the statements.

‘Strange’

For Maqboul, a member of the Fatah revolutionary council in Nablus, the talk about peace after the assassination of Sheikh Yassin, the founder of Hamas and deemed by Palestinians as an embodiment of resistance, is nonsense.

“It is strange to mention peace and commitments to international agreements in light of such escalations,” he said. Qorei had denounced Yassin's killing as “state terrorism,” saying Israel is trying to add fuel to the fire of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Maqboul made clear that all factions are convinced of turning civilians away from the conflict, a belief he said they could not abide by due to “Israeli provocative operations”.

“Occupation forces are responsible for us carrying out operations against Israeli civilians, as they keep running a pace of aggressions against our civilians,” said Kayed Al-Ghul, a politburo member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

He confirmed that the factions proposed an initiative to avoid targeting civilians in a Cairo-based talks, but Israel turned down the initiative.

Twenty-seven reserve and active duty airmen signed a letter  on September 2003 addressed to Sharon, refusing to carry out “immoral and illegal” raids on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Last November, four former heads of the Israeli Shin Beth interior security services warned of the “disastrous”  consequences of Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian areas.

“Resistance is a legitimate right to Palestinians. We are defending ourselves and our right,” said Saleh Zeidan of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Zeidan ruled out strikes by the Palestinian Authority on resistance fighters, as it “well realizes the dangerous situation on the ground now”.

Lead To Strikes

‎“It is strange to mention peace and commitments to international ‎agreements in light of such escalations,” Maqboul

Ghazal of Hamas believed the statements could be a lead to hitting resistance fighters, an opinion shared by leaders of the other factions and analysts.

“The statements could have been made before a potential attempt to hit resistance to resume the peace process with Israel,” said Abdel-Sattar Qasem, the political science professor at Al-Najah University in Nablus, the West Bank.

Qasem believed that the Palestinian Authority officials now shudder in fears for the ripple effect of the assassination of Sheikh Yassin, including nipping in the bud all efforts for appeasement.

“Qorei also has an ideological tendency for setting up relations with the U.S. and Europe, and he is a key supporter for a reconciliation with Israel,” he said.

Qasem added that the statements are indicative of the government’s stance on the roadmap peace plan, drafted by the U.S. and EU as well as security conditions stipulated in agreements with Israel.

Israel has criticized Qorei for failing to confront resistance groups behind the bombing campaign, which usually came in response to Israeli almost-daily sweeps into Palestinian areas leaving over massive scenes of destruction.