Palestinian Group Issues Call To Arms As Violence Continues
The Age
Thursday January 24, 2002
JERUSALEM
A coalition of Palestinian groups yesterday urged the launching of new attacks as Israel accused PLO leader Yasser Arafat of using ``terror groups" under his control to drag the Middle East into war.
The Palestinian coalition's call for a ``general mobilisation" of forces against the Jewish state came after another day of escalating violence and appeared to dash any hopes for reviving Mr Arafat's call last month for a suspension of the Palestinian armed struggle.
In the latest attack, a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis and injured 14 others during rush hour on Jerusalem's main shopping street, Jaffa Road, on Tuesday evening before he was killed by police.
The attack came only hours after Israeli commandos killed four members of Hamas during a raid on the West Bank town of Nablus.
``We call upon all the security forces, the heroes of the intifada (uprising) and our entire people to confront the Zionist invasion," said the statement issued in Gaza City by the Coalition of National and Islamic Forces, which includes Hamas and Mr Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO.
It urged the Palestinian people ``to join the intifada committees to confront the Zionist invasion and (Israel's) blockade" of Palestinian towns.
The coalition also urged Mr Arafat to release the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Saadat, who was detained in connection with his group's assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi at a Jerusalem hotel in October.
The statement was issued after Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, declared ``total war" on the Jewish state.
``The goal of Arafat and the terrorist organisations under his control is to drag the region into a war," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said after the latest attack.
Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat accused Israel of escalating the violence through its military raids and said the Nablus killing of four Hamas members was ``state terror".
But Danny Ayalon, an adviser to Mr Sharon, said the action in Nablus was justified.
More Israeli military actions are expected to follow this latest Palestinian attack. But Hamas said it too was determined to step up the violence.
Hamas issued a leaflet in Gaza City, saying Israel had, in its words, ``opened the door to all-out war against the Zionist army and (Jewish) settlers, by all means and all places".
Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of Israel, had agreed last month to partially observe a truce called by Mr Arafat last month.
In Nablus, more than 2000 Hamas supporters rioted outside the Palestinian police headquarters and demanded the release of more than two dozen Hamas detainees.
Protesters stoned police, setting fires and burning three police cars before the Palestinian security forces responded with tear gas, bullets and stun grenades. At least one rioter was shot dead by Palestinian police during the clashes.
But in the end, the Palestinian Authority attempted to appease the mob and a brother of one of the four men killed was released on the orders of Mr Arafat.
© 2002 The Age