There are signs that militants may be quitting $tupido stuff.
However there are still masked gunmen, and the pledge doesn’t say they won’t lob little shoorlies (homemade rockets) to Israel. Let’s see what happens. Ramzan may bring some peace and other good news to poor Palestinian arabs afterall.
Palestinian militant groups join in unity pledge
08 Oct 2005 20:45:35 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Cynthia Johnston
GAZA, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Rival Palestinian militant groups put up a united front on Saturday to denounce inter-factional kidnappings and violence that have undermined calls by President Mahmoud Abbas for law and order in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“We announce all of the military wings are united in their position and destiny and that we consider any attack on any one of us as an attack on us all,” eight factions, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said in a statement.
“Any action aimed at spreading chaos or internal strife … will be considered treason,” said the statement, issued at a Gaza news conference attended by gunmen, some of them masked. “Our response will be unified and swift.”
In the latest in a string of kidnappings widely believed to stem from factional rivalries, a Hamas member was abducted by unidentified gunmen in the West Bank on Friday but was released within hours. Several other Hamas men were snatched last week and freed unharmed.
Three people were killed in Gaza on Sunday in firefights between Hamas gunmen and Palestinian police, and 50 people were wounded when militants later tried to storm a police station.
Abbas has called on militant groups, which have spearheaded anti-Israeli violence over the past five years, to end what he describes as armed chaos and stop carrying their weapons in public.
Commenting to reporters on the militants’ announcement, Abbas condemned the appearance of armed, masked men at the news conference.
“Such images are rejected completely and we will deal with them by imposing order through the Palestinian security forces in a way that does not harm Palestinian citizens,” Abbas said.
DISARM AND DISMANTLE
Israel has complained he has not gone far enough and must disarm the factions and dismantle “terrorist infrastructure” in accordance with a U.S.-backed “road map” that sets out mutual steps leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Abbas, who declared a truce along with Israeli leader Ariel Sharon last February and coaxed militants into announcing a “period of calm” until the end of the year, wants to co-opt gunmen rather than confront them, warning of a risk of civil war.
The two are expected to meet in the coming week ahead of Abbas’s White House talks with U.S. President George W. Bush on Oct. 20 amid heightened hopes for peacemaking following Israel’s completion of a pullout from the Gaza Strip on Sept. 12.
Israeli and Palestinian officials planned to meet on Sunday for another round of preparatory talks ahead of the Abbas-Sharon summit, which is not expected to yield any breakthroughs.
Abbas, repeating his intention to press Sharon to release Palestinian prisoners and pull troops away from West Bank cities, said his first talks with the Israeli leader since the Gaza withdrawal had to be prepared carefully.
“We do not want to disappoint the Palestinian public or the Israeli public,” Abbas told reporters.
Speaking on Israel Radio, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom reaffirmed Sharon’s refusal to restart talks on Palestinian statehood until Abbas cracked down on militants.
“Our demand is unequivocal: they have to act against terrorism decisively,” Shalom said.
“I think if they do that, we would be willing to take a long series of measures that would ease things for them. Our aim is to march together towards a resumption of talks, but in accordance with the road map and devoid of shortcuts which the Palestinians are interested in.”
(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)