HIGHLIGHTS: 'Hams Bombings a Response to Killing Palestinian Civilians,' Sheikh Yassin||Palestinian Resistance Attacker Killed North of Ramalllah||'Arafat's Pull out Election Condition Refer to Situation in Territories Before Aqsa Intifadha,' Top Palestinian Officials||STORY: Hamas, the Palestinian resistance movement, is ready to halt attacks on Israeli civilians if the Jewish state stops targeting Palestinians, the founder of Hamas told a Saudi daily. (Read photo caption)

"We were the first to reject killing civilians. We had decided to comply with this policy, but the Israeli troops committed massacres against our people in Jenin and other areas," Sheikh Ahmad Yassin told Al-Jazira newspaper.

"This made us retaliate against the Israelis by the same method," said Yassin. "Our movement is ready to stop military operations against Israeli civilian targets, under the condition that Israel stops targeting Palestinian civilians," he added.

Sheikh Yassin insisted that Hamas bombings inside Israel are only a response to the killing of Palestinian civilians at the hands of Israeli occupation soldiers.

He regretted Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's description of the latest Palestinian bombing near Tel Aviv as "terrorist", saying "It is not acceptable from any Palestinian."

"We are not terrorists, nor do we seek bloodshed. We are after freedom for our people and land. We are defending ourselves and fighting is legitimate for us," Yassin said.

TENSIONS REMAIN HIGHT

Meanwhile, on the ground Israeli occupation troops were still poised Saturday on the outskirts of the Jenin refugee camp, where the day before the army ordered in dozens of tanks and arrested suspected militants.

The Jenin refugee camp was also mopping up during the day and preparing to bury a Palestinian teen who was killed by a mine blast. It was not clear which side planted the explosive during the pitched battles there last month.

Additionally, two Palestinians were arrested early Saturday, hours after their brother stabbed and wounded an Israeli settler in the West Bank before being shot dead, their father told AFP.

The Israeli occupation army said the man infiltrated the settlement through a hole in a fence, and stabbed the civilian security guard at the Jewish settlement of Beit El, north of Ramallah. He was then shot dead by the wounded guard.

However, the military said it had arrested only one of the brothers.

PA ELECTIONS

Arafat on Friday was widely interpreted as throwing a wrench into his pledge to hold new elections for his Palestinian Authority, saying he would hold the polls only "as soon as possible after the end to the occupation of our lands."

However, top Palestinian officials said Saturday he was referring to the situation in the territories before the second Palestinian intifada against the Israeli occupation erupted on September 28, 2000.

"The Israeli army must withdraw from the positions it has occupied since September 28, 2000 for free elections to take place without Israeli restrictions," Arafat's top adviser, Nabil Abu Rudeina, told AFP.

Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Sha'ath said after Arafat's comments that the goal remained to have presidential and parliamentary elections within six months.. Sha'ath added the Palestinians also insisted that residents of Arab east Jerusalem be permitted to vote, as they were in the last Palestinian election in 1996.

"If that happens, then everything will be prepared. We are working on it now," he said. The Palestinian Central Elections Committee is to convene Saturday evening, Israel Radio reported. The meeting of the committee, led by Arafat's deputy Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), will be attended by the Palestinian leader, the radio added.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Palestinian man kisses the founder of the Islamic militant group Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in the mosque after Friday prayers in Gaza, May 17, 2002. Yassin vowed his movement would continue 'martyrdom' attacks against Israel as long as Israeli occupation existed. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters) - May 17 10:49 AM ET