JERUSALEM, Oct 2: Israel suspended an offensive against militants in the Gaza Strip, including targeted killings, as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas agreed on Sunday to meet in the near future.
A close aide to Sharon said a campaign of attacks last month, in which four Islamists were killed in an air strikes on their vehicles, had taught Palestinians the “new rules of the game” since the pullout of Israeli soldiers from the territory three weeks ago.
The declaration was welcomed by the Palestinian Authority which said it would increase the chance for progress in the peace process.
“We have decided to suspend the offensive operations that we launched last week in response to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel,” the official in Sharon’s office told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“We believe that the very hard blows we have dealt Hamas has made this organisation understand that the rules of the game have changed since our withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and we will not tolerate any attack which stems from this region.”
Israel launched a series of air strikes on Gaza last weekend in the aftermath of a barrage of rocket attacks by Hamas fired from Gaza into Israel.
The Islamist movement had blamed Israel for a massive blast at one of its rallies in Gaza, called to celebrate Israel’s recent pullout from the territory, which killed 15 people. Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority said the explosion was caused by a rocket which had exploded in a Hamas jeep.
Two members of Hamas and two members of the smaller Islamic Jihad faction were killed in air strikes which targeted their vehicles in Gaza.
Hamas dismissed the move as a ploy to split the Palestinian people.
“This statement is part of the propaganda campaign to blackmail our people and to put pressure on the Palestinian Authority to fight against the factions and resistance groups,” said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
But chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said “a cooldown between the Palestinians and Israelis is in the interests of both sides,” as he revealed Abbas and Sharon had agreed in a phone call to try and meet later this month.
The pair had been initially due to meet on Sunday but the flare-up in Gaza had led to the summit being shelved.
“They talked about meeting, in principle this month, but there is no date,” Erakat told AFP.
Sharon’s office confirmed that the leaders had agreed to meet soon as they exchanged greetings for the Jewish new year and Ramadan.
Abbas is also set to hold a summit with US President George W. Bush at the White House on October 20 where he is set to be pressed to rein in militants.
Bush believes the pullout from Gaza can revive the ailing peace process but knows such hopes will be stillborn if violence continues to blight the region.
The US State Department last week urged Israel at the height of its air strike campaign “to take into account the effect of their actions” upon peace.
Israeli officials believe Abbas will come under pressure during his trip to Washington to institute a proper crackdown on Hamas which is planning to run in January’s legislative elections.
Abbas has previously indicated that he wants to co-opt Hamas into the political process and warned that a formal crackdown could spark a civil war.
Sharon was quoted as telling the weekly cabinet meeting that he had stressed to fellow world leaders at the recent UN General Assembly in New York that “the participation of Hamas in elections is dangerous and bad.—AFP
