VARIOUS: Polls open in crucial Likud Central Committee vote, following new Israeli strikes in Gaza hours after Hamas says it will end its attacks

Record ID: 354585

  • Title: VARIOUS: Polls open in crucial Likud Central Committee vote, following new Israeli strikes in Gaza hours after Hamas says it will end its attacks
  • Date: 26th September 2005
  • Summary: WIDE OF VOTING AREA
  • Embargoed: 11th October 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3SZYWU25SR0NC602TUU6M8E6I
  • Story Text: Israel launched multiple missile strikes in Gaza on Monday (September 26) in response to Palestinian rocket fire as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon battled to fend off a rightist leadership challenge in his Likud party.
    Likud's Central Committee was voting on a motion presented by Benjamin Netanyahu to advance the party's primary election to November in protest at Sharon's removal of soldiers and settlers from Gaza this month after 38 years of occupation.
    "I hope that the Likud Central Committee members will come to vote against the proposal which will harm the Likud badly," Sharon told reporters.
    A weekend barrage of rockets into Israel from Gaza appeared to have strengthened Netanyahu, who argued that evacuating the territory would encourage more violence. Sharon's tough response could help shore up his position at the last moment.
    The latest poll showed Likud support for Netanyahu rising to 50.7 percent, with 42.3 percent against. Only 6.9 percent remained undecided, not enough to shift the outcome in Sharon's favour. Earlier polls forecast a result too close to call.
    Voting by the 3,000-member Central Committee was to finish at 1900 GMT, with results expected several hours afterwards.
    Sharon's aides said that if he lost the ballot, he could quit Likud and forge a new centrist bloc capitalising on majority popular support for the Gaza pullout.
    A victory would give Netanyahu an opening to topple Sharon as prime minister if he could muster enough support for a no-confidence vote in parliament. That is far from certain.
    An early primary, sought by hardliners who say the rapid exit from Gaza was not in accordance with Likud's nationalist covenant, would probably advance the next general election to as early as February from its scheduled date in November 2006.
    Israel launched multiple missile attacks in Gaza overnight on Sunday (September 25) and into Monday morning (September 26) hours in response to Palestinian rocket attacks. It was the worst surge of violence since Israel's pullout from Gaza on September 12 after 38 years of occupation.
    Israeli aircraft had attacked at least five targets throughout the Gaza Strip by early on Monday (September 26) including a metal workshop and buildings used by militants.
    In what looked like a positive move on Sunday night (September 25) Hamas, the most powerful Palestinian militant group, had said it was halting attacks on Israel following the missile strikes, but not all militant factions have followed suit.
    Hamas's most senior leader, Mahmoud al-Zahar, announced his group's decision shortly after Israel killed an Islamic Jihad leader in an air strike in a resumption of its policy of targeting militants for assassination.
    The decision would ensure the safety of Palestinians in Gaza, he said.
    "We are calling our militant group to stop their activities against Israeli occupation outside Gaza Strip," al-Zahar, announced at a news conference he convened in Gaza.
    Zahar said the decision to end attacks from Gaza was due to "Hamas's interest to protect the Palestinian people from the oppression of the Zionists and to preserve the atmosphere of celebrations at the defeat of the occupation."
    Zahar said Hamas, which is sworn to Israel' destruction, would continue to abide by a truce that militant groups declared in March and said they would honour until the end of the year by request of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
    Preparing to run in a January parliamentary election for the first time against Abbas's Fatah party, Hamas does not want to be blamed for a relapse into all-out fighting with Israel.
    And most Palestinians want a peaceful Gaza to rebuild a ruined economy and make it a proving ground for a Palestinian state.
    Palestinian Planning Minister Ghassan al-Khatib said the Palestinian Authority welcomed Hamas's announcement.
    "We welcome the recent positive response of some factions, including Hamas, to abide by the ceasefire and we hope that the United States and the Quartet will make the necessary efforts to convince Israel also to abide by the ceasefire and to end its continuous attacks on Palestinians
    But Israeli government officials are sceptical. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeman,said it was up to the Palestinian Authority to ensure that Hamas is disarmed.
    "It's just so important that the Palestinian leadership do what it promised to do and that is disarm Hamas," Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev said.
    Sharon has said Israel will go to statehood talks with Palestinians, which are meant to start under a U.S.-backed peace road map, only if they disarm militants.
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