Palestinian security officials and prominent members of the militant Muslim movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad appeared to be in harmony this evening in their dismissal of Israeli demands that the Palestinian Authority arrest wanted activists as a condition for a new ceasefire agreement.
|
|
Mr Shimon Peres and Mr Yasser Arafat who met last Wednesday
|
"The ceasefire does not mean Palestinians arresting our people," General Amin al-Hindi, head of Palestinian intelligence services, said, referring to a shaky truce hammered out by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Mr Shimon Peres last Wednesday.
Gen Hindi argued the Palestinian Authority should not arrest suspected militants in the face of persistent Israeli violence after a weekend in which 11 Palestinians were killed and more than 200 injured in protests marking the one-year anniversary of the Palestinian uprising, or intifada. "The Israeli aggression has continued despite the Arafat-Peres meeting. You can see in the field what the Israeli army did," he said.
This morning Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian workers in the north of the West Bank as they tried to sneak into Israel, a Palestinian hospital source said.
The two men died when the soldiers opened fire on two cars carrying Palestinian workers coming from refugee camps. Three others were slightly wounded, the source said.
They were taken to the hospital at Tulkarm after being shot near the neighbouring village of Attara.
AFP