Gaza Raid
Aborted A Palestinian Truce Plan: Haim Ramon
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A victim of the Israeli army most successful operation in Gaza. |
JERUSALEM,
July 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel's deadly raid on
Gaza City last week derailed a ceasefire that was under way by the
Palestinians, according to the head of the Israeli Parliament's
Foreign and Defense Committee Monday, July 29, 2002.
Israeli
Labor deputy Haim Ramon presented the committee with a text of a
ceasefire call which, he said, (resistance) militant groups within
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat Fatah movement was about to issue
when an Israeli U.S.-made F-16 bombed the house of a wanted resistance
activist, killing him and 17 civilians, nine of them children,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Palestinian
groups said the raid upset efforts to coordinate a truce with
resistance factions such as Hamas, whose spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed
Yassin also said truce talks were underway.
The
unsigned document presented by Ramon, a rival to Labor leader Binyamin
Ben Eliezer who green-lighted the attack on Gaza on July 22, appealed
to all armed groups to halt attacks on Israeli civilians, including in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
It
called on armed groups from Fatah and other movements, including
Hamas, to end the attacks without renouncing the right to fight the
Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas.
"I
would be astonished if (Israeli) military intelligence did not know
about this document, and I don't understand why they did not inform
the political powers," Ramon said after the meeting.
He
said that such information would have justified canceling the raid,
which Israeli officials claimed was put off eight times to avoid the
risk of civilian deaths.
The
Israeli fighter-bomber dropped a one-ton laser-guided bomb on the
hideaway of Hamas military leader Salah Shehadeh, accused of
planning attacks, by Palestinian resistance activists, against
Israelis.
The raid was unanimously denounced by the international community,
although Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that while he
regretted the civilian deaths, it was one of the army's most
successful operations.
It
also brought a chorus of enraged cries for retribution from all the
main Palestinian resistance groups.
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Only children, yet, they want to free their land. |
Meanwhile,
Arafat said Monday, July 29, that he was still working on a plan for a
ceasefire among resistance factions despite the Gaza raid which he
said "had completely destroyed" a tentative accord to reach
a truce.
"We
reached that agreement but the agreement was completely destroyed by
an F-16 attack in Gaza. But we'll continue our efforts regarding this
issue," he told reporters after meeting U.S. Reverend Jesse
Jackson, AFP reported.
Arafat stressed that the "peace process is the only way forward
... to finish the Israeli occupation and have a Palestinian state far
from violence, far from state terrorism, bloodshed and far from
suicide bombings."
However,
high-ranking Israeli sources are saying that Israel rejects the
contacts between the Palestinian Authority and various Palestinian
(resistance) groups. They insist that the Palestinians undertake broad
security reforms and cease incitement before any dialogue with the
other side can take place, reported Israeli daily newspaper
Ha’aretz.
"The
Palestinian talks don't concern us at all, and according to our
sources, they are not serious. But even if there were a public
announcement of a cease-fire, it wouldn't be close to our
demands," said a senior government source Sunday.
Observers
in the region believe Sharon’s government does not have a political
agenda. This, in their view, explains the timings of major Israeli
aggressions on the Palestinians during Sharon’s premiership so far.
A day after the Arab leaders adopted the Saudi peace plan for a
comprehensive settlement with Israel, during the latest Arab summit in
Beirut last March, Sharon launched a full-scale aggression on the West
Bank cities.
The
same situation repeated itself, almost identically all through, last
of which was the Gaza raid. It came at a time when diplomacy was on
the verge of bearing fruit. One day earlier, Hamas spiritual leader
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, may be for the first time, declared readiness to
halt bombing attacks against Israelis, provided that Israel withdraws
from the West Bank cities it reoccupied.
Judging
from these and other practices, observers say, there is no hope for a
political breakthrough as long as “bloody” Sharon remains in
power.
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