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Moussa Abu Marzouk
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Additional
reporting by Wissam Fouad, IOL Correspondent
GAZA
CITY
, November 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction said it agreed to an Egyptian
proposal calling for an end to attacks against Israelis, whereas the
Islamic resistance group Hamas categorically denied such claims.
"What
I can tell you very clearly is this. We can not stop resistance
operations while we see our people being killed, our houses destroyed,
and our farms burnt down.
"What
truce can we talk about then?!" Hamas spokesman, Usama Hamdan
told IslamOnline late Thursday, November 14.
"The
(Israeli) occupation that calls for a truce is the one that swept
Tulkarem and Nablus two days ago, and tried to reoccupy Gaza last
night, making it almost to the middle of the city, meters away from
Sheikh Yassin’s (in a reference to Hamas spiritual leader)
house," he added.
Hamdan
emphasized that "in such circumstances, we can only say that an
initiative should come from the enemy (
Israel
), they can back off and leave our people alone."
However,
a Fatah official Friday, November 15, told Agence France-Presse (AFP)
on condition of anonymity: "We, in Fatah, agreed to a
satisfactory proposal put forth by our Egyptian brothers in
Cairo
to stop (martyr) operations inside
Israel
and attacks against civilians for several months."
The
official did not specify whether the term "civilian"
included Jewish (illegal) settlers in the
West Bank
and Gaza Strip, whom Palestinian groups often describe as legitimate
targets, together with Israeli soldiers, in their struggle against
occupation.
"Hamas
promised to study the document," the official added, following
talks between Fatah and the Islamic movement that took place in Cairo
earlier this week.
But,
he warned that "the implementation of this proposal really
depends on the Israeli side, which should, in exchange, stop its
aggression against our people, all arrests and the killing of
Palestinian civilians."
For
his part, a top Hamas official who participated in the
Cairo
talks denied "any knowledge of the Egyptian document"
although he said "there could be such a document."
Abdelaziz
Rantissi said there was "no secret agreement and no commitment
outside the communique jointly issued in Cairo."
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Palestinian resistance groups find it hard to believe Israel may stop its aggressions |
The
statement carried by
Egypt
's official news agency MENA Wednesday, November 13, did not make any
mention of discussions aimed at ending attacks by Hamas against
Israel
.
It
said "resistance and political struggle (against the Israeli
occupation) are natural and legitimate rights" and that Hamas and
Fatah would "continue dialogue through a joint coordination
committee to be set up in the Palestinian territories."
Rantissi
confirmed that the two parties "will meet again very soon inside
(the Palestinian territories) and without Egyptian participation.
"We
want to pursue our dialogue and will talk about everything," he
said, including resistance attacks.
The
Fatah delegation was led by central committee member Zakaria al-Agha,
while the Hamas team was headed by politburo member Mussa Abu Marzuq.
According
to a senior Israeli military source, the aim was to set the stage for
Hamas to become a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization and
the Palestinian Authority in return for its readiness to accept the
legitimacy of Fatah's leading role.
Hamas,
which carried out the bulk of anti-Israeli (resistance) attacks in
recent years, is not a member of the Fatah-dominated PLO but wields
huge influence in the (occupied) Palestinian territories, especially
in the Gaza Strip.
It
has claimed the majority of bomb attacks against Israelis since the
beginning of the 25-month-old Palestinian Intifada and almost
systematically disregarded Arafat's calls for a ceasefire.
However,
Arafat's ceasefire pledges have also been ignored by an armed offshoot
of his own Fatah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, who claimed
responsibility for an attack on kibbutz in northern Israel Sunday
night.
The
Egyptian media Friday, November 15, reported that Egyptian
intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who played a part in the
Cairo
talks, held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and
President Moshe Katsav Thursday, November 14.
He
passed on a message from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on ways of
"calming the situation and resuming negotiations" between
the two sides, the government daily Al-Akhbar reported.
But
there was no indication that Hamas and Fatah had reached an agreement
on ending (martyr) attacks.
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