despite Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas’s call to end the armed uprising, BosNewsLife monitored Friday, June 6.
Palestinian Culture Minister Zeyad Abu Amer said Hamas hadn’t officially notified his side that the dialogue was being halted, but blamed the Israeli government for the militant group’s position.
Earlier two Hamas members were shot dead in the village of Attil, west of the West Bank town of Tulkarim, news reports said.
"Israel is totally responsible for the reaction of Hamas movement’s leaders concerning halting the dialogue," the minister told United Press International (UPI). "Israel was supposed to respect its commitments to allow us making hudna with Hamas."
TENSIONS HIGH
However tensions are high as Israeli police suspect terrorists stabbed to death a young couple whose bodies were reportedly found this week near Jerusalem.
The latest developments were seen as a major blow for the "roadmap for peace" plan which was discussed earlier in the week at a landmark summit in Jordan with Abbas, his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon and American President George W. Bush.
"The armed Intefada must end, and we must use and resort to peaceful means in our quest to end the occupation and the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis and to establish the Palestinian state," said Abbas, Wednesday June 4.
CHILDREN
His call came amid the release of a study, which shows almost half of the children in Israel – 42 percent – suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result of terrorist attacks since 2000.
Fifteen percent of the children surveyed suffer from a moderate to serious case of the disorder, according to the research presented to the Israeli Parliament, or Knesset, this week, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem said Friday, June 6.
The research, conducted by Dr. Avital Laufer of Tel Aviv University, surveyed 3,000 children 13 to 15 years old who live in Israel, including the settlements.
POWER STRUGGLE
Analysts have linked the refusal by Hamas to commit itself to non violence to a power struggle between Abbas and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who has been sidelined by the U.S. and Israel because of his alleged support for terrorism.
Arafat has been besieged in his headquarters in Ramallah for more than a year as Israeli troops surround the compound. Despite Hamas’s refusal to end the violence, Israel began preparing to dismantle 12 settlement outposts in the West Bank as part of Sharon’s promise at the just-ended Mideast summit.
News reports said Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met with top military commanders to discuss how to go about removing the outposts, one of the conditions of the "roadmap", which envisages a Palestinian state in 2005.
