Israel suspends air raids
2005-10-02 10:31
Jerusalem - Israel has decided to suspend until further notice air raids, targeted killings and artillery fire in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, an official said on Sunday.
"We have decided to suspend the offensive operations that we launched last week in response to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel," an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said.
The decision means the suspension "for now" of Israeli air raids in the Gaza Strip, of artillery fire towards the north of the territory and of operations aimed at eliminating radical Islamic militants in both Gaza and the West Bank, said the official, who declined to be named.
"We also wanted to give (Palestinian leader) Mahmud Abbas a chance to prove that he has decided to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure before his trip to the United States," the official added.
Abbas is due to hold talks with US President George W Bush in Washington on October 20.
"We believe that the very hard blows we have dealt Hamas has made this organisation understand that the rules of the game have changed since our withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and we will not tolerate anyu attack which stems from this region," the aide to Sharon said.
Israel launched a series of air strikes on Gaza last weekend in the aftermath of a barrage of rocket attacks by Hamas, fired from Gaza into Israel.
The Islamist movement had blamed Israel for a massive blast at one of its rallies in Gaza, called to celebrate Israel's recent pullout from the territory, which killed 15 people. Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority said the explosion was caused by a rocket which had exploded in a Hamas jeep.
Two members of Hamas and two members of the smaller Islamic Jihad faction were killed in air strikes which targeted their vehicles in Gaza.
In addition, more than 500 wanted Islamists were arrested in the West Bank over the course of the week.
A further four alleged Hamas followers were arrested overnight in the West Bank, a sharp drop on figures of previous days, the army said.
Mahmud Zahar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, announced last Sunday that the movement was suspending its rocket attacks. Israel however charged that Hamas was still pressing other hardline factions to fire missiles.
- AFP