Palestinians Seek to Rescue Floundering Unity Talks as Israel Demolishes More Homes

16/08/2002| IslamWeb

Highlights: Two Homes Belonging to Resistance Bombers Destroyed, Relatives Detained||Hamas Rejects Document on United Leadership But Continues Talking & Protests Being Singled out as Only Obstacle to Agreement||More Bloodshed Overnight||Ereqat Meets Jordanian Foreign Minister in Amman|| STORY: The Palestinians were attempting to revive stalled talks on finding a common strategy against Israel, whose army continued its get-tough policy of destroying the houses of Resistance activists and their families.

Israeli occupation troops dynamited Friday morning the West Bank house of an Islamic Jihad bomber who killed 17 people in June in the northern Israeli town of Meggido.

Palestinian security sources said the man's brother was arrested.

The occupation army destroyed a second house, near Tulkarem, which belonged to a Palestinian who shot and wounded two Israeli policemen in the Israeli Arab village of Taibeh seven months ago, the sources said.

These were the latest operations under Israel's controversial policy of deterring would-be attackers by demolishing houses belonging to Resistance activists and rounding up their families and threatening them with deportation to the Gaza Strip.

Israel this week stepped up demolitions, which rights groups say are the latest form of collective punishment used by the army, as its closure of the West Bank has struggled to prevent anti-Israeli attacks.

PALESTINIAN GROUPS STILL AT ODDS AT TALKS

Palestinian factions were meanwhile still at odds Friday over whether to carry on with attacks inside Israel, but appeared determined to continue seeking a unified stance on ways of fighting against Israeli occupation.

Palestinian international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath said Thursday night efforts were underway to rescue the week-long inter-factional discussions after the Islamic group Hamas rejected a document on a united leadership.

Shaath told AFP Hamas had backed away from articles in the document endorsed by secular nationalist factions, including Yasser Arafat's Fatah, which called for an end to attacks inside Israel and the creation of a state inside the 1967 borders.

But Abdelaziz Rantissi, a Hamas leader, accused Shaath of unfairly singling out Hamas as the only obstacle to an agreement, during an interview with the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera.

"I object to Nabil Shaath's groundless accusations. More than five factions reject some items in this document. However, Nabil Shaath did not mention them," he said, vowing that dialogue would continue.

Despite obvious tension between the secular and Islamic factions, another Hamas official, Ismail Abu Shanab, told AFP: "We will continue the negotiations next week."

He announced earlier that talks had failed over the Islamic group Hamas' rejection of the document.

MORE BLOODSHED OVERNIGHT

The stall in the talks came against a backdrop of continued bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, with three more Palestinians killed on Thursday night.

The Israeli occupation army said one of its units patrolling the Kissufim Crossing between the central Gaza Strip and Israel had spotted two men trying use the cover of darkness to crawl under a security barrier with a large bag.

Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip of Khan Yunis were meanwhile preparing to bury a five-year-old boy they say was shot dead by Israeli troops Thursday

EREQAT MEETS JORDANINAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN AMMAN

At the same time, senior Palestinian negotaiator, Saeb Erakat met in Amman on Thursday with Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher on the first leg of a tour to brief the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia on his recent trip to Washington and Palestinian-Israeli security talks.

Moasher insisted during the meeting on the need for a political track to revive the peace process, official Petra news agency said.

Erakat, meanwhile, praised Jordan's position of support for the Palestinian people and its repeated calls for an end to Israel's re-occupation of the West Bank.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Palestinian boy sits amid the ruins of a house demolished by Israeli soldiers in Bethlehem, Aug. 13, 2002. Israeli troops demolished the family homes of a Palestinian gunman and a suicide bomber in the West Bank, witnesses and the army said. (Oleg Popov/Reuters)
- Aug 13 12:47 PM ET