GAZA, June 9, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) –
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was to hold talks in Gaza
Thursday, June 9, with Palestinian resistance factions to prevent the
shaky truce from fracturing, following Israel's latest attacks.
Abbas was expected to meet with representatives from the main
Palestinian factions at round-table discussions in Gaza City to
discuss means of shoring up a de facto truce with Israel, Palestinian
sources were quoted as saying by Agence France Presse (AFP).
A separate one-on-one session of talks is also expected between the
Palestinian leader and Hamas representatives to discuss a recent
decision to delay parliamentary elections, which were likely to be
held in July.
The talks come hours after an Israeli unmanned drone fired two
missiles at a vehicle carrying a group of Hamas members near the
southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis.
"This raid cannot be justified as it sabotages the calm,"
Abbas said on his arrival in Gaza late Wednesday.
Witnesses said four Hamas members escaped unhurt to flee the
Israeli air strike on their vehicle.
The Israeli army claimed that the raid targeted a mortar launcher
that had just been fired and another that was about to be used, as
well as a car loaded with mortar rounds.
In retaliation to the Israeli raid, the Hamas group fired rounds of
mortar Qassam rockets at Jewish settlements in Gaza later Wednesday.
And in another Israeli violation of the truce, eight Israeli tanks
and armored vehicles entered overnight on a 300-meter (yard) stretch
in Gaza Strip, immediately after the Palestinian leader arrived in the
strip.
The column closed in on a building in the area, but later withdrew.
Three Palestinians had been killed Tuesday, June 7, by Israeli
occupation forces during separate military offensives in the occupied
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinian resistance factions, which have been observing a de
facto ceasefire, agreed last month in Cairo to extend the truce until
the end of the year.
Israeli Messages
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Palestinian boys gather around the damaged car of Hamas members
after an Israeli air strike. (Reuters)
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The repeated Israeli violations of the ceasefire with the
Palestinian factions are seen by experts and observers as sending a
message to the Palestinian people that it would always be the
"absolute master in their territories" and it would pursue
its security policies against the Palestinians till they give up their
resistance.
The Israeli violations also send another message to the Israeli
people that withdrawal from Gaza was not due to the Palestinian
resistance attacks.
"The Israeli government is carrying out pre-emptive attacks
against the Palestinian resistance factions in a bid to ease the
mounting internal pressures due to the Gaza pullout," Adnan Abu
Amer, a political analyst in Gaza, told IslamOnline.net Thursday, June
9.
"It also wants to prove to the Israeli people that the Gaza
withdrawal is out of strength, not due to painful resistance
attacks."
The political analyst maintained that the latest Israeli escalation
could also be an attempt to prevent the Hamas group from joining the
Palestinian political process.
"Hamas has made a remarkable show in the municipal election,
so it is not a surprise to hear leaked reports on launching
back-breaking attacks against the resistance group before the Gaza
withdrawal."
Obligations
Dr. Mekhamer Abu Saada, political sciences teacher at the
Gaza-based Al-Azhar University, agreed.
"Israel wants to send messages to the Palestinians that its
patience is about to come to an end as it claims that the Palestinians
are using the ceasefire to develop their combating abilities and
prepare anti-Israeli attacks."
On Thursday, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected petitions by
opponents of the Gaza withdrawal plan contesting the legality of a law
which allows for the withdrawal and the compensation of settlers.
Abu Saeda, however, stressed that Israel is more concerned to
maintain the ceasefire with the Palestinians.
"The Sharon government is preparing to implement the Gaza
pullout and it doesn't want its withdrawal to look like as if fleeing
the Palestinian resistance attacks as was the situation in South
Lebanon."
Director of the Arab Center for Research and Studies in Gaza,
Moamen Beseso, echoed a similar stance.
"Israel is trying to impose new conditions on continuing its
security policies against the Palestinians, without meeting its
obligations as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement.
"Though failing to meet its obligations, the Israeli
government demands the Palestinian Authority to meet its
commitments."
