Palestinian militants rejected a halt on attacks
without security guarantees from Israel, spoiling the Palestinian prime
minister's bid to jump-start Mideast peace talks with a full cease-fire.
A masked Palestinian
militant from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group linked to the
Fatah movement walks past a burning tire during a demonstration
against the Geneva Accord, in the Rafah refugee camp , southern Gaza
Strip, Sunday Dec.7, 2003. [AP]
After three days of talks in Egypt, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have
carried out most suicide attacks against Israel, would agree only to a limited
truce Sunday: ending attacks on civilians in Israel, but not on Jewish settlers
or Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia had hoped a full cease-fire would
help lay the groundwork to jump-start the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan. But
the militant groups said they would only agree to a more comprehensive truce if
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made similar guarantees.
"Let Abu Ala (Qureia) talk with Sharon and ask him if he is ready to make a
cease-fire. If Sharon is ready to make a cease-fire, we will study it," senior
Hamas official Mohammed Nazzal said.
Egypt had called together the Palestinian factions — more than a dozen,
ranging from Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement to the Islamic groups and
smaller leftist movements — in hopes of producing a halt to all attacks.
Egyptian Intelligence Chief Gen. Omar Suleiman wanted to present the truce to
Washington next week in a broad proposal that could win U.S. backing and
pressure Israel.
An official from Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian delegates said a further
meeting was planned but no date for it was set.
Israel said it would accept only a comprehensive halt. "There's no halfway
cease-fire," said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He
said Israel is willing to stop shooting if there was a total Palestinian truce.
Qureia, who joined the talks Sunday in the hopes of bridging the gap, left
the Egyptian capital, and several delegates acknowledged the talks produced no
concrete results.
"There are disagreements about the nature of a cease-fire," Maher Taher, a
senior delegate for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, told The
Associated Press. "The factions have different positions on the issue."
Even when Qureia and Suleiman applied new pressure in a three-hour meeting
Sunday, Hamas and Islamic Jihad refused to buckle. The two groups have killed
hundreds of Israelis during more than three years of violence.
The militant factions also rejected giving Qureia authority to speak for them
in any negotiations with Israel.
In June, the Palestinians declared a cease-fire on attacks within Israel that
also was negotiated in Egypt. Israel was not formally part of that truce, and it
collapsed after seven weeks, with Israel attacking Palestinians and Palestinians
resuming suicide bombings.
"It was difficult for us and other factions to accept a new truce without
guarantees from the Israeli side, because the previous truce failed in the same
way, because of no Israeli guarantees," said Nafez Azzam, an Islamic Jihad
spokesman in Gaza.
In the end, delegates said the Cairo meetings would only produce a final
statement, but no deal.
In exchange for the full truce, Egypt and Fatah were demanding that Israel
stop building settlements, pull its troops out of Palestinian areas reoccupied
during the uprising and halt construction of its so-called security barrier
along the borders with Palestinian areas, which juts into Palestinian land.
Sharon said Israel is still interested in a cease-fire.
"The solution is that if there is total quiet and there won't be terror,
Israel will make every effort to abstain from its activity against terrorists,"
he said. He made the comments before the Cairo talks ended.
The Palestinian suicide attacks have targeted buses, cafes, restaurants,
shopping malls and outdoor markets inside Israeli territory, drawing
condemnation from the international community as well as from the Palestinian
Authority. But no deadly suicide bombings have occurred in Israel for more than
two months.