May 18, 2002	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 5, 1423

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BEIRUT, May 17: A new wave of suicide bombings will hit Israel if the Jewish state does not withdraw from Palestinian territory, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) political chief said on Friday.

“If Israel does not withdraw from the Palestinian territories, the martyr operations will resume as well as other types of operations,” said Faruq Qaddumi, a noted hardliner and a founding member of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.

He did not say what sort of withdrawal he was referring to — a pullback to positions before the West Bank invasion that began on March 29, to lines before the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000 or to Israel’s borders before the 1967 Middle East war.

His comments flew in the face of recent statements by Arafat denouncing attacks on Israel. Arafat publicly spoke out against “attacks” on Israeli civilians following a May 7, suicide bombing in Israel that left 17 dead and 55 injured.

Last Saturday, the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria met at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and denounced all “forms of violence”, in a nod to Israel’s fears of Palestinian attacks against its civilians.

Qaddumi was to represent the Palestinian Authority and PLO at an Arab League committee meeting here Saturday on the Saudi peace plan adopted by the 22-member pan-Arab organization at its March summit in Beirut.—AFP