Arafat's group calls for halt to civilian attacks

The Washington Post

JERUSALEM -- A draft statement by senior leaders of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement calling for a halt to attacks against Israeli civilians was leaked to news organizations here Tuesday, and was immediately met by dissension among Palestinians.

The disclosure threatened to sideline support for a plan seeking to halt attacks against Israeli civilians being pushed by U.S. and European representatives.

The draft statement, which was approved by the Fatah's Central Committee in a meeting with Arafat on Friday, said, "We call on all Palestinian organizations to stop targeting Israeli civilians" but stressed that "we will continue our resistance." A copy was made available to news outlets.

U.S. and European intermediaries have spent weeks struggling to persuade Palestinian factions to stop suicide bombings and other attacks inside Israel. Their efforts have been stymied by the competing interests of divergent Palestinian organizations, the Israeli occupation of West Bank cities and Israel's targeted attacks against militant leaders.

An agreement by Palestinian groups to halt attacks was derailed in July when the Israeli military bombed a neighborhood in Gaza City, killing a leader of the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, and 15 others, many of them women and children. At that time, a range of Palestinian organizations, including Hamas, were prepared to sign the declaration, according to U.S. and European intermediaries involved in the process.

No large-scale attacks have been carried out in Israel since the July 31 bomb detonation at Hebrew University in Jerusalem that killed eight people, including five Americans.

Although several Fatah members said they agreed in principle with the draft statement, they expressed anger that the Central Committee -- whose members are close to Arafat -- had taken action without consulting the entire organization.

The declaration hasn't been agreed to by other Palestinian groups. Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin told reporters in the Gaza Strip Tuesday, "We will continue our holy war in the land of Palestine, despite the ongoing aggression and all conspiracies to end the intifada."