Palestinians legislative council reelects Qrei

The Israeli forces on Monday prevented 14 members in the Palestinian legislative council from Gaza from reaching the city of Ramullah in order to take part in the council's sessions which reelected Ahmed Qrei as a chairman for the council and Ibrahim Abu al-Naja as a deputy speaker for the council.

Meantime, the Palestinian national resistance movement, Hamas, said that the speech of the chairman of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat does not meet the expectations and ambitions of the Palestinian people and stressed the need of continued resistance and strengthening national unity in the face of the Israeli occupation.

One of the Hamas's leaders, Ismael Haneyah, said that the security of the Israelis can not be achieved at the expense of the security of the Palestinians who are in drastic need of security under occupation.

In a speech Arafat made before the Palestinian legislative council held in Ramullah, the West Bank, Arafat expressed opposition to all forms of terrorism and operations targeting civilians, in remarks to the suicide operations and the Israeli attacks against the Palestinians.

Arafat also stressed his complete readiness to take part in the war against international terrorism within the context of the UN and international terrorism, stressing that the Palestinians are among the victims of terrorism. He strongly condemned September 11 attacks on the US saying "we express out condemnation and denunciation and voice our solidarity with the American people who were exposed to this ugly crime."