Israel violated a 7-month ceasefire with Hamas
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 4/3/1998

Israel has in practice violated an undeclared, seven-month cease-fire with Hamas and thus has made a retaliatory suicide attack almost inevitable, said a senior Hamas member in Gaza Friday.

Ribhi Rantisi, a relative of Hamas leader Dr. Abdul Aziz Rantisi, said the political leadership of the movement has nothing to do with the military wing and that Hamas will retaliate in due time and place.

"Hamas is always ready and has the capacity to retaliate at any time," he said. Israel, said Ribhi, has violated the cease-fire just as it did back in 1996 when its agents assassinated Yihya Ayyash, the former top bomb maker in Hamas who was killed when explosives in his cellular phone were detonated as he answered an incoming calls.

Ribhi said that Dr. Rantisi met with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat who requested that Hamas practice self-restraint and not to carry out any suicide attacks. Rantisi reiterated Hamas' stand that the political figures in the movement have nothing to do with the military wing, which has it own chain of command and does not receive instructions from the political figures of the movement.

In addition to President Arafat's direct call on Hamas not to retaliate for Sharif's death, US officials also said they believe the Palestinian government is working to prevent any retaliatory attacks by Hamas against Israel. But Israeli officials continued to blame the Palestinian government for any potential suicide attack Hamas might carry out in response to the death of its top bomb maker, Mohyiddin Sharif.

Israeli sources admitted Friday that US officials have told Israel that the Palestinian government is doing its best to prevent such an attack "because of the dangerous impact it will have on the already stalled peace process." Israel's general security services head Ami Ayalon met with Palestinian president Yasser Arafat on Thursday and heard from him details about the Palestinian investigation into last Sunday's car blast in Ramallah where the body of Sharif was found riddled with three bullets.

The Palestinians believe Sharif was first shot dead by Israeli agents three hours before the blast and that his body was put in the car before it was detonated by remote control. Some 50 kilograms of explosives were said to have blown up the car, a Fiat Uno that was stolen from inside Israel and brought to Ramallah some months ago.

Hebrew press on Friday quoted US experts as saying that they have no information as to who killed Sharif. According to them there is a serious difference between Sharif's death and the assassination of Yihya Ayyash, the former bomb maker of Hamas who was killed by the Israelis early in 1996. The US experts noted that in Sharif's case, Israel has issued an unequivocal denial of any kind of involvement in the incident.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said any suicide attack by Hamas would disrupt the current talks on the implementation of the second phase redeployment of Israeli troops in the West Bank. But more serious threats came from extreme right wing Knesset member Rahvaam Zeevi who called on Israel to storm the Palestinian areas and destroy the infrastructure of Hamas.

He claimed the Oslo Accords, which he does not accept at all, had given Israel the right to hot pursuit and even to enter Palestine on the grounds of intelligence reports to combat what he termed terror. Zeevi claimed the Palestinian government is not doing enough to stop Hamas attacks and is even happy to see such attacks being carried out. "Arafat," he said, "wants to use the threat of suicide bombings or the bombings themselves, as a means to pressure Israel in order to obtain a larger percentage of Israeli troop withdrawal and in order to continue by the same tactics until the Palestinians ultimately drive us into the sea."

Senior officials in the Israeli intelligence charged Palestinian Preventive Security forces chief, Colonel Jibril Rajoub, as being the one who aired his accusations at Israel being involved in Sharif's assassination. Israeli intelligence sources said Jibril does not have friendly working relations with the head of the Palestinian General Security Services in the West Bank, Brigadier General Tewfiq Tirawi, who is in charge of the blast investigation. They said that Rajoub's relations with the Israeli security services were sour too. According to them, Jibril wanted to achieve political gains out of the Sharif death and at the expense of contacts between the Palestinian government and Israel.

Palestinian security sources, however, stressed that Rajoub's announcement was based on the forensic report that was issued immediately after Sharif's body was examined. In that examination, three bullet holes were found in the body, two in the chest and one in the leg, and the report said they were shot some three hours before the car blast. The Palestinian sources denied reports of sour relations between Rajoub and Tirawi. "Israel has always allowed herself to come out with lots of stories based on fantasies and false reports," a senior source in the Preventives Security Forces said.

Previous Stories:
  Retaliation by Hamas called for   (4/2/1998)
  Israel increases security in expectation of suicide attacks   (4/1/1998)
  Mystery of explosion victim revealed: Hamas top official   (4/1/1998)

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