AL KHALIL, Oct 6: The leader of Arafat’s Fatah movement in the West Bank rebelled against a string of urgent appeals by Arafat for sticking to the battered truce.

“The people have taken the decision to start the intifada (uprising) and have insisted to continue the intifada until liberty and independence,” Marwan Barghouthi declared.

Barghouthi also told a German magazine that his group does have links with hardline groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

At a meeting chaired by Arafat, the Palestinian leadership called overnight for Palestinians to respect the fragile ceasefire.

The Palestinian cabinet warned sternly that any violation was “a serious act which harms the national interest and gives ideal cover for the Israeli government to complete its expansionist project.”

But armed factions of Arafat’s Fatah movement had claimed the roadside slaying of an Israeli near the West Bank city of Tulkarem on Friday and the gunning down of three Israelis in a northern Israeli bus station the previous day.—AFP