http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/05/06/news/nation/16_37_215_5_07.txt
Hamas rejects U.S. document; Islamic Jihad fires rockets at Israel
By: DIAA HADID - Associated Press Writer
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- The leader of Hamas rejected an American proposal
for a detailed timeline to ease Palestinian movement and improve Israeli
security, instead threatening new violence against Israel despite wary
Palestinian government support for the U.S. plan.
The Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, said Israel is planning a military
operation against the Palestinians.
"We in Hamas are also preparing ourselves for battle, and we expect hot
months," he said. He urged all Palestinian groups to "seriously prepare
themselves for battle."
Israel said Mashaal's comments show the true nature of the group.
"We never had any illusions as to the policies and goals of the Hamas and
unfortunately his remarks do not come as a surprise," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Mark Regev said.
In the Gaza Strip, Islamic Jihad militants on Saturday fired three rockets
toward Israel, damaging a house in the town of Sderot to avenge the killing
of three members of the group by Israeli undercover troops a day earlier.
Hamas' military wing warned that Israel would pay a price for the killing of
the three Islamic Jihad members.
"We warn the enemy of an explosion that will not be merciful to anybody, and
the fire, if ignited, will not be inextinguishable," said a spokesman, Abu
Ubadya, on the group's Web site.
Hamas killed scores of Israelis in suicide bombings but largely ceased the
attacks after a truce was reached in February 2005.
The latest fighting and Hamas threats pressured a weak truce reached by
Israel and militant groups along the Gaza-Israel border in November.
Militants have said the truce can only work if Israel also stops operations
in the West Bank. Islamic Jihad has frequently fired rockets from Gaza,
despite the truce.
The U.S. document was recently given to Israel and the Palestinians.
It calls on Israel to remove many West Bank roadblocks, improving operations
at Gaza's crossings and arrange for truck convoys between the West Bank and
Gaza, two areas separated by Israel.
Officials in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office, citing security
concerns, said some of the demands might be difficult to meet, such as
arranging for a West Bank-Gaza link.
The Palestinians are asked to halt rocket fire from Gaza at Israel and
prevent weapons smuggling into the coastal strip. Israel is urged to allow
weapons and equipment to reach security forces loyal to moderate Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas.
Most of the points were already contained in a troubled November 2005
agreement, brokered by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following
Israel's pullout from Gaza. Setting a timeline, even one that is non-binding
unless both sides accept it, is the new element of the document.
The chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the document was presented
to the PLO Executive Committee, a top decision-making body, for review on
Saturday. Erekat said the Palestinians welcomed the May to August timeline
as the only way to translate words into action.
On Sunday, Abbas was to brief Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, the
Islamic militant group that governs in a shaky coalition with Abbas' Fatah
Party.
On Friday, Mashaal told a rally in Syria that the Palestinians should not
agree to halt rocket fire.
"I swear it's a farce ... the equation has now become: dismantling the
checkpoints, in exchange for (giving up) resistance," he said.
Erekat said Mashaal's comments were premature.
Last month, Hamas militants in Gaza fired rockets toward Israel, a first
since the cease-fire. Mashaal and other Hamas leaders have threatened a
third Palestinian uprising if the international community does not lift
sanctions on the Palestinian government imposed after Hamas came to power
last year. The Hamas-Fatah coalition has been unable to break the embargo.
Abbas told Fatah after a return from Europe this week that he has made no
progress toward lifting the sanctions. Most countries maintain the boycott
because Hamas refuses to renounce violence and recognize Israel.
On Saturday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr and Finance Minister
Salam Fayyad urged visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
to work toward ending the boycott.
"We asked his excellency to exert his utmost efforts, as the German foreign
minister and president of the EU, to end the siege on the Palestinian
people," Abu Amr said in a joint news conference with Steinmeier.
Abu Amr also asked the visitor to appeal to Israeli leaders, whom he is
meeting Monday, to release hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian
tax rebates that Israel has frozen in the past year.
Steinmeier, who also met with Abbas, was noncommittal, saying only that
Germany would continue to be engaged in the region.
He noted that Europe sent more aid to the Palestinians last year than in the
years before. However, most development projects have been stopped, and the
money is going largely for humanitarian aid.
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