Hamas to renew its attacks on Israel
Hamas to renew its attacks on Israel
By Steven Erlanger. Copyright by The New York Times
Published: June 9, 2006
JERUSALEM Israeli shells hit a crowded beach in northern Gaza on Friday, killing at least seven Palestinians, including a family of five and two women, and wounding more than 30 others, according to Palestinian journalists and medical personnel.
In response, the military wing of the ruling Hamas movement issued a leaflet declaring that it would renew attacks on Israel after abiding by an intermittent cease-fire for more than a year. "The Israeli massacres represent a direct opening battle, and that means the earthquake in the Zionist cities will resume," the statement said.
Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas government, confirmed the accuracy of the statement but implied that a response to the shelling would not mean a complete end to the cease-fire.
"They killed innocent civilians who were enjoying their time on the beach and have nothing to do with military affairs," he said in a telephone interview. "So I believe that we, the Palestinians, including Hamas, have the right to respond and defend ourselves."
Asked whether this meant an end to the cease-fire and a renewal of open warfare with Israel, Hamad responded: "What kind of war can we declare against Israel, with its army?"
The Israeli commander for the south, General Aviv Kochavi, called the incident "an accident" and said the army was investigating whether a shell had missed its target 400 meters, or 1,300 feet, from the beach.
The Israeli shelling was part of what Israel says is its continuing effort to repress the firing of Qassam rockets from Gaza into Israel. Israel also fired missiles Friday at two cars belonging to Palestinians alleged to have fired rockets at Israel. The Israeli missiles killed three Palestinians - two brothers and a cousin who were members of the Popular Resistance Committees - and wounded another three, who were members of Islamic Jihad, in the second car.
The Ghaliya family - Ali, Raisa and three children aged 1, 3 and 10 - was having a picnic on the northern Gazan beach on a hot afternoon when they were all killed in the shelling.
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority condemned Israel for what he called "a bloody massacre" in the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli chief of staff, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, ordered a halt to the shelling until the deaths of the civilians could be investigated.
An Israeli Army spokesman, Captain Jacob Dallal, said that the army was sure that the shells that hit the beach had not come from Israeli gunboats or aircraft, and that the army was checking on whether artillery was responsible. He said that Israel was prepared to help with medical care for civilians wounded in the incident.
Kochavi, the Israeli commander, said in a telephone interview that his troops had fired four shells toward an area 400 meters inland from the beach "often used to shoot Qassam rockets toward Ashkelon," in the early morning, and another six shells in the late afternoon. Three of the six fell north of the target, he said, and "the accident was south of the target, so we're trying to discover whether one of our shells fell wrong or whether a dud shell," fired previously, had exploded on the beach.
Palestinians fired at least five Qassam rockets into Israel on Friday, but no Israelis were hurt; about 30 Qassams were fired this week, the Israeli Army said. Some of the rockets were said to be in response to the Israeli Air Force bombing of a Palestinian training camp around midnight Thursday that killed a senior a Palestinian commander and Hamas Interior Ministry official, Jamal Abu Samhadana, and three others.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians attended the funerals of Samhadana and his colleagues in Rafah on Friday, filling a stadium with a makeshift mosque and calling for revenge against Israel. The ongoing cycle of violence is taking place against the backdrop of a political confrontation between the militant Hamas, which runs the Palestinian Authority, and Fatah's Abbas, who is expected on Saturday to announce a referendum for July 31 on a political program Hamas opposes.
Hamas made another appeal to Abbas on Friday to cancel the proposed referendum, as a senior figure in Al Qaeda, in a videotape, called on Palestinians to vote against Abbas in any such vote.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas asked Abbas to back down for the sake of Palestinian unity and continue political dialogue instead, on the basis of a document produced by prisoners calling for a national-unity government but opposed in central elements by Hamas.
In the Qaeda videotape, Ayman al- Zawahiri, considered to be Osama Bin Laden's deputy, urged Palestinians to reject a political platform that implicitly recognizes Israel alongside a Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders. "I call on them to refuse any Palestinian referendum because Palestine belongs to the Muslim world," Zawahiri said in a video aired Friday on Al Jazeera television. "Palestine is not for any bargaining or sale."
Zawahiri also criticized the 2002 Arab proposal that offers Israel peace if it pulls back completely to pre-1967 boundaries, something that Israel has rejected. He called it the "Arab capitulation initiative," and lambasted Arab governments for not defying Washington to support Hamas and the Palestinians in the face of an economic siege imposed on Hamas because it will not recognize Israel, forswear violence and accept previous agreements.
"They did not have the courage to even meet the Palestinians' needs for one month," said Zawahiri, who insisted that "the orders" came from Washington "to their agents to starve the Palestinians and to isolate them."
Haniya, the prime minister, told Abbas in a letter: "The idea of the referendum now on the table carries many dangers. I'm afraid it will cause a historic rift that will hurt the Palestinian cause for decades to come."
He repeated Hamas's assertion that the president had no power to call a referendum that would leave out Palestinians living outside the territories, and said such a vote "has no legal and constitutional basis." He said that the killing of Samhadana, 43, who ran the Popular Resistance Committees and whom Hamas had appointed security chief, created a dangerous atmosphere that required Palestinian unity, not division.
But Abbas seems determined to set a date for the vote, though his aides said that discussions with Hamas would continue in the meantime and could mean that no vote takes place.
Abbas is eager to reassert the primacy of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which he heads. He is also eager to commit Hamas to a two-state solution, which implicitly recognizes Israel, in the hope that the West will then resume budgetary aid to the Palestinians. Abbas would then have more justification for calling on Israel to reopen peace talks with him.
Hamas reacted angrily Friday to the Israeli attacks, even before the shelling of the beach created even more political pressure on Hamas to respond. Hamad, the Hamas spokesman, said, "The ongoing Israeli attacks are an attempt to topple the government, and the strike on the members of the military wing today is a new phase in the Israeli activity and will oblige us to reconsider our steps."
Hamad added: "Israel must pay a price."
By Steven Erlanger. Copyright by The New York Times
Published: June 9, 2006
JERUSALEM Israeli shells hit a crowded beach in northern Gaza on Friday, killing at least seven Palestinians, including a family of five and two women, and wounding more than 30 others, according to Palestinian journalists and medical personnel.
In response, the military wing of the ruling Hamas movement issued a leaflet declaring that it would renew attacks on Israel after abiding by an intermittent cease-fire for more than a year. "The Israeli massacres represent a direct opening battle, and that means the earthquake in the Zionist cities will resume," the statement said.
Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas government, confirmed the accuracy of the statement but implied that a response to the shelling would not mean a complete end to the cease-fire.
"They killed innocent civilians who were enjoying their time on the beach and have nothing to do with military affairs," he said in a telephone interview. "So I believe that we, the Palestinians, including Hamas, have the right to respond and defend ourselves."
Asked whether this meant an end to the cease-fire and a renewal of open warfare with Israel, Hamad responded: "What kind of war can we declare against Israel, with its army?"
The Israeli commander for the south, General Aviv Kochavi, called the incident "an accident" and said the army was investigating whether a shell had missed its target 400 meters, or 1,300 feet, from the beach.
The Israeli shelling was part of what Israel says is its continuing effort to repress the firing of Qassam rockets from Gaza into Israel. Israel also fired missiles Friday at two cars belonging to Palestinians alleged to have fired rockets at Israel. The Israeli missiles killed three Palestinians - two brothers and a cousin who were members of the Popular Resistance Committees - and wounded another three, who were members of Islamic Jihad, in the second car.
The Ghaliya family - Ali, Raisa and three children aged 1, 3 and 10 - was having a picnic on the northern Gazan beach on a hot afternoon when they were all killed in the shelling.
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority condemned Israel for what he called "a bloody massacre" in the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli chief of staff, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, ordered a halt to the shelling until the deaths of the civilians could be investigated.
An Israeli Army spokesman, Captain Jacob Dallal, said that the army was sure that the shells that hit the beach had not come from Israeli gunboats or aircraft, and that the army was checking on whether artillery was responsible. He said that Israel was prepared to help with medical care for civilians wounded in the incident.
Kochavi, the Israeli commander, said in a telephone interview that his troops had fired four shells toward an area 400 meters inland from the beach "often used to shoot Qassam rockets toward Ashkelon," in the early morning, and another six shells in the late afternoon. Three of the six fell north of the target, he said, and "the accident was south of the target, so we're trying to discover whether one of our shells fell wrong or whether a dud shell," fired previously, had exploded on the beach.
Palestinians fired at least five Qassam rockets into Israel on Friday, but no Israelis were hurt; about 30 Qassams were fired this week, the Israeli Army said. Some of the rockets were said to be in response to the Israeli Air Force bombing of a Palestinian training camp around midnight Thursday that killed a senior a Palestinian commander and Hamas Interior Ministry official, Jamal Abu Samhadana, and three others.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians attended the funerals of Samhadana and his colleagues in Rafah on Friday, filling a stadium with a makeshift mosque and calling for revenge against Israel. The ongoing cycle of violence is taking place against the backdrop of a political confrontation between the militant Hamas, which runs the Palestinian Authority, and Fatah's Abbas, who is expected on Saturday to announce a referendum for July 31 on a political program Hamas opposes.
Hamas made another appeal to Abbas on Friday to cancel the proposed referendum, as a senior figure in Al Qaeda, in a videotape, called on Palestinians to vote against Abbas in any such vote.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas asked Abbas to back down for the sake of Palestinian unity and continue political dialogue instead, on the basis of a document produced by prisoners calling for a national-unity government but opposed in central elements by Hamas.
In the Qaeda videotape, Ayman al- Zawahiri, considered to be Osama Bin Laden's deputy, urged Palestinians to reject a political platform that implicitly recognizes Israel alongside a Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders. "I call on them to refuse any Palestinian referendum because Palestine belongs to the Muslim world," Zawahiri said in a video aired Friday on Al Jazeera television. "Palestine is not for any bargaining or sale."
Zawahiri also criticized the 2002 Arab proposal that offers Israel peace if it pulls back completely to pre-1967 boundaries, something that Israel has rejected. He called it the "Arab capitulation initiative," and lambasted Arab governments for not defying Washington to support Hamas and the Palestinians in the face of an economic siege imposed on Hamas because it will not recognize Israel, forswear violence and accept previous agreements.
"They did not have the courage to even meet the Palestinians' needs for one month," said Zawahiri, who insisted that "the orders" came from Washington "to their agents to starve the Palestinians and to isolate them."
Haniya, the prime minister, told Abbas in a letter: "The idea of the referendum now on the table carries many dangers. I'm afraid it will cause a historic rift that will hurt the Palestinian cause for decades to come."
He repeated Hamas's assertion that the president had no power to call a referendum that would leave out Palestinians living outside the territories, and said such a vote "has no legal and constitutional basis." He said that the killing of Samhadana, 43, who ran the Popular Resistance Committees and whom Hamas had appointed security chief, created a dangerous atmosphere that required Palestinian unity, not division.
But Abbas seems determined to set a date for the vote, though his aides said that discussions with Hamas would continue in the meantime and could mean that no vote takes place.
Abbas is eager to reassert the primacy of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which he heads. He is also eager to commit Hamas to a two-state solution, which implicitly recognizes Israel, in the hope that the West will then resume budgetary aid to the Palestinians. Abbas would then have more justification for calling on Israel to reopen peace talks with him.
Hamas reacted angrily Friday to the Israeli attacks, even before the shelling of the beach created even more political pressure on Hamas to respond. Hamad, the Hamas spokesman, said, "The ongoing Israeli attacks are an attempt to topple the government, and the strike on the members of the military wing today is a new phase in the Israeli activity and will oblige us to reconsider our steps."
Hamad added: "Israel must pay a price."
posted by Carlos T Mock at 5:46 AM
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