Sharon meets with army leader

The Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon met yesterday with the leaders of the Israeli army in Gaza to discuss means of halting the attacks of the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli settlements.

The security meeting coincided with the readiness of the occupation army to carry out large scale operations in the sector. The Israeli army radio said that the army chief of staff Moshe Yaloun is preparing military plans in order to start military operations against Gaza if attacks continue to target the settlements.

A source close to Sharon said that Israel decided to give Abbas "a certain grace period of time" in order to control the "Palestinian" groups. He threatened that if Abbas will not change the norms of the game the Palestinians will pay a heavy price.

On the other hand, the Arab League condemned in a statement, Sharon's decision to increase the military escalations against the resistance groups and considered it as very grave and constitute an escalation of violence against the Palestinians.

The European Union urged Israel to give Abbas "an opportunity" to convince the Palestinian groups to halt their attacks against Israel.

In another development, several citizens from Sdeirout settlements near Beit Hanoun to the north of Gaza demonstrated demanding the occupation army to erase the town completely from the surface of earth in retaliation to launching the locally made al-Qassam missiles.