Hamas suspends suicide attacks, but fighting continues

Associated Press

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – For the first time in 15 months of fighting, the Islamic militant group Hamas announced Friday that it is suspending suicide bombings and mortar attacks in Israel, improving chances for a U.S.-led truce to take hold.

Despite that promise, tensions between militants and Palestinian police trying to enforce a cease-fire continued to run high. Five Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded Friday in a gunbattle in a Gaza refugee camp.

Israel dismissed the Hamas announcement as a tactical move aimed at easing international pressure on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to crack down on Islamic militants.

“Hamas is doing what Arafat wants from them. He (Arafat) wants several days of quiet so that public opinion will be on his and the Palestinian Authority’s side,” said Gideon Meir, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official.

Despite the Hamas moratorium, the potential for violence remained high. The smaller Islamic Jihad group announced from Lebanon that it was not suspending attacks, and the Hamas decision does not apply to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where some 200,000 Jewish settlers live.

Islamic militants have killed scores of Israelis since September 2000, including 37 this month alone. In all, more than 840 people have died on the Palestinian side and more than 240 on the Israeli side.

Last weekend, Arafat renewed his call for a truce with Israel, demanding a halt to suicide and mortar attacks. Hamas initially resisted, and a senior Palestinian official said Friday’s announcement was a result of protracted negotiations between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

Arafat’s crackdown on militants – his security forces have arrested dozens of suspects and shut down some Hamas offices and mortar factories – has been accompanied by bloody confrontations. Since Thursday, six Palestinians have been killed and at least 94 hurt in gunbattles between militants and Palestinian police.

The deadliest fight erupted Friday in the Jebaliya refugee camp north of Gaza City during the funeral of an Islamic Jihad supporter. As thousands of mourners passed the local police station, gunmen in the crowd shot at officers, who returned fire. The battle went on for more than an hour despite appeals from mosque preachers and the head of Islamic Jihad in the camp to stop shooting.

In all, five Palestinians were killed in Jebaliya, including at least two Islamic Jihad gunmen, and about 55 people were wounded, doctors said. Reporters, who are normally granted free access to hospitals after Israeli attacks, were barred from speaking to the wounded. Friday’s death toll was the second-highest as a result of internal fighting since the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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