MIDDLE EAST: PALESTINIAN LEADERSHIP EXPRESSES DISTRUST OF ISRAELI INTENTION TO RELEASE PRISONERS AND HAMAS THREATENS TO END TRUCE IF ISRAEL FAILS TO STAND BY ITS COMMITMENTS

Record ID: 400296

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: PALESTINIAN LEADERSHIP EXPRESSES DISTRUST OF ISRAELI INTENTION TO RELEASE PRISONERS AND HAMAS THREATENS TO END TRUCE IF ISRAEL FAILS TO STAND BY ITS COMMITMENTS
  • Date: 4th August 2003
  • Summary: (U3) JERUSALEM (AUGUST 4, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. PAN: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON ARRIVING AT FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE COMMITTEE MEETING WITH MINISTERS AT THE KNESSET 0.14 2. VARIOUS VIEWS OF SHARON MEETING WITH MINISTERS 0.33 3. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) REUVEN RIVLIN, KNESSET SPEAKER, SAYING: "The question of releasing prisoners go
  • Embargoed: 19th August 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM/ RAMALLAH, WEST BANK/ GAZA
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVAESX0GNCGK8V21B4FQ4X1PVCJ5
  • Story Text: Palestinian leadership expresses distrust of Israeli intention to release
    prisoners and Palestinian militant group Hamas threatens to end truce
    if Israel does not stand by its commitments.


    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met the Foreign
    Affairs and Defence Committee in Jerusalem on Monday
    (August 4), a day after a militant shot and wounded an
    Israeli settler-woman and her three children in a rare
    flare up of violence since Palestinian militants waging a
    34-month-old uprising for statehood declared a three month
    truce on June 29.

    Israel said on Monday the West Bank shooting would not
    derail a Palestinian prisoner release intended as a gesture
    to keep a U.S.-backed peace plan on track.

    Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin said that the Palestini
    ans should play their part in implementing terms of the
    peace plan.

    "The question of releasing prisoners goes to the merit
    of the initiative of President Bush. We can do everything
    and the Palestinians are not doing anything. Once again
    they think they can get away with what they have done. It
    has to be very understood Israel cannot make gestures once
    the Palestinians are not ready to fulfil -- to implement
    even one word of what was accepted by them", Rivlin said.

    The attack on Sunday (August 3) on the Israeli
    woman's car just outside Jerusalem was claimed by the
    al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group from Palestinian
    President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, and rocked a
    three-month truce declared by militants on June 29.

    Additional violence in the West Bank on Monday in which
    a Palestinian was killed threatened the ceasefire further.

    Reporting on Wednesday's scheduled prisoner release,
    Israeli media said a list of some 440 prisoners was
    compiled, including about 200 from Islamic militant groups.

    Israeli officials had said 540 prisoners would be freed in
    a bid to bolster Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

    Palestinians seek a general release of all the 6,000
    Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and militants
    have said anything short of that could jeopardise the truce
    in a 34-month-old uprising for statehood.

    Palestinian Minister of Labour Ghassan al-Khatib
    said: "First of all we will believe it (the prisoner
    release) only when we see it because there is always
    statements that come for public consumption but according
    to the news that we received from the Israeli side, mainly
    from the media so far the nature of the release is not
    satisfactory because they seem to be releasing several
    categories that are not of significance. They are releasing
    people who are about to be released any how and people who
    are arrested who have nothing to do with security and
    political issues but rather criminal kinds of prisoners. So
    this release seems to be aiming at meeting public relations
    needs rather than giving the impression to the Palestinian
    people that something positive is happening and that
    something is being offered from the Israeli side."
    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat criticised the
    intended release, calling the move 'deception'.

    "Israel is releasing 400, but they will detain another
    800. In two days, they detained 239 Palestinians in Hebron.

    They say that they're going to release 400 people, but they
    detained another 800. What is this? Is this deception? Are
    they deceiving nations? Is this the implementation of the
    Road Map?" Arafat told reporters at his West Bank compound.

    Arafat also said he intends to move militants he has
    been sheltering in his headquarters to the West Bank city
    of Jericho or to the Gaza Strip.

    Palestinian officials said the transfer of the group of
    about 20 militants could lead to an Israeli pullback from
    Ramallah, where Arafat has been effectively confined to his
    battered compound since December 2001.

    In Gaza, Palestinian militant group Hamas voiced
    impatience with what it called Israeli violations of terms
    it set for a three-month ceasefire and called on all
    militant groups to be ready for confrontation with Israel.

    "We are committed to what we had declared. We stopped
    all our activities. But as we mentioned in our statement,
    we could continue our military activities at any time if
    the enemy does not stand by its commitment" said Hamas
    spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said.

    Hamas and other leading militant groups spearheading
    the 34-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood
    decla red the truce, vital to a U.S.-backed peace plan, on
    June 29.

    The group has pinned the truce's success on Israel's
    release of all 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in its jails and
    a halt to the killing of militants.

    In Gaza Palestinians held a demonstration calling for
    the release of prisoners.
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