Fragile Mideast ceasefire shaken despite international mediation efforts
( 2001-06-05 09:25 ) (7 )

Despite a truce by the Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah and international mediation efforts, Israel warned Monday time was running out for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to rein in attacks as the brittle ceasefire was shaken by unrest in the territories.

Some 25 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers were wounded in the first exchange of fire since Arafat issued ceasefire orders on Saturday as international envoys prepared visits to the region to save the truce.

Israel has complained the latest incidents are not encouraging, while Palestinian officials called on the Jewish state to stop questioning their commitment to the ceasefire.

"We are giving one more chance for peace at present by seeing whether Mr. Arafat will follow through his ceasefire commitment," said Dore Gold, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"Right now the evidence is not very promising," he added.

But late Sunday, the military branch of Hamas and an armed Fatah group announced a truce, conditional on Israel's acceptance of a withdrawal from the occupied territories.

"We are going to stop our operations in our lands which are occupied since 1948 as of Monday midnight (2100 GMT)... to give the Israeli people a chance to ask their government to stop their terror against our people... and withdraw from our occupied land", said the statement signed by the Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas movement which claimed the Tel Aviv bombing, and by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a branch of Arafat's Fatah.

The two movements vowed however that "attacks will continue in the occupied Gaza Strip, West Bank and east Jerusalem".

Following Arafat's call for a ceasefire, Israel has held back from retaliating for Friday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed 20 young people, most of them Israelis, plus the bomber, in the deadliest attack in years.

But mortar shells also hit Israeli targets in the Gaza Strip and the Kfar Darom Jewish settlement was targetted overnight Sunday, the army said, although the Palestinians denied the report.

A Palestinian security official said patrols had been sent out to crack down on renegade Palestinian fighters in "areas of friction" since Arafat issued written orders to enforce the ceasefire, the first since the anti-Israeli uprising erupted in September.

Another Palestinian security official claimed Israeli forces entered areas under Palestinian control in the Gaza Strip overnight near Kfar Darom razing greenhouses, but the Israeli army categorically denied the account.

"We have no evidence that Mr. Arafat is reimprisoning those human time bombs, the operatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad that have been attacking Israeli population centres over the past two weeks," Gold said.

The armed wing of the radical Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas claimed responsibility for the Tel Aviv bombing.

Meanwhile, the United States and Russia were leading a new round of international diplomacy seeking to break the cycle of violence.

Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin said CIA chief George Tenet was "expected in Israel very soon as part of an US initiative aimed at promoting security meetings".

Russia and Turkey are also hurriedly despatching diplomats to the region, following on the heels of missions by the German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and a special delegation appointed by Pope John Paul II.

"There is no doubt that (the attack) has completely altered the situation in the region because we are now at a juncture between war and peace and the situation could change dramatically within hours," Fischer, who has held talks with both Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said in an interview with the Haaretz newspaper.

Fischer, who flew to Cairo Monday, immediately held talks with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Maher and is due to discuss the latest developments in the region with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa on Tuesday.

Russian emissary Andrei Vdovin is due to hold talks Tuesday with Sharon and his foreign minister, Shimon Peres.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, also in Cairo, said a high-level Israeli-Palestinian meeting could not be ruled out, as a result of the new flurry of international mediation efforts.

Sharon, who chaired a cabinet meeting Sunday to weigh Israel's response to the Tel Aviv attack, was quoted saying he considered Arafat's ceasefire call a "tactic" employed because of international pressure and fears of harsh reprisals.

Gold declined to say how much time Israel was giving Arafat, but added: "Israel will do what is necessary to defend its people if it ascertains that Mr. Arafat is not serious about following through on its ceasefire."

For his part, Israeli President Moshe Katsav said in New York that Israel was ready to give Arafat a "few days" to stop the violence, which has cost more than 600 lives in just over eight months.

Deputy Defence Minister Dalia Rabin-Pelosoff also said Israel wanted to check the reality of the ceasefire, while the Israeli government secretary, Gideon Saar, said the Palestinians had taken steps in the right direction, but added they were insufficient.