GAZA CITY, Dec 15: Four offices of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas movements have been closed on the order of the Palestinian Authority, a Palestinian police official said Saturday.

He said the closures took place on Friday and added that 12 more Islamic militants’ offices were expected to be closed on Saturday night.

The administration of the two organisations’ mosques will be transferred to the ministry of religious affairs, the police official said.

On Wednesday night, the Palestinian Authority ordered the immediate closure of all Hamas and Islamic Jihad offices in the Palestinian territories following a destructive wave of Israeli reprisals for Palestinian suicide attacks.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has been bunkered at his Ramallah headquarters in the West Bank since December 3, trapped by an Israeli blockade and under enormous pressure from Israel and the United States to rein in extremists involved in anti-Israeli attacks.

Hamas and its smaller rival Islamic Jihad have been behind most anti-Israeli bombings since the start of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000.

On Friday, Arafat sent a message to the US administration pledging to do “everything he can” to meet US and EU demands if Israel stops its aggression, sources close to the Palestinian leader said.—AFP

VETO SLAMMED: The US veto of a UN Security Council resolution on the Middle East crisis was met with criticism from all sides except Israel Saturday, amid fears the US move would encourage more violence in the region.

Exercising its veto power for only the second time in more than four years, the United States blocked late Friday a resolution that condemned “all acts of terror, in particular those targeting civilians.”—AFP