Article
Bombers declare the truce over
Special report: Israel and the Middle East
To have and have not in Gaza
Israel was in a state of high alert yesterday after two Palestinian militant groups, Islamic Jihad and Hamas, formally declared the battered ceasefire over. But the Palestinian Authority, led by Yasser Arafat, and the Israeli government continued to cling to the remnants of the ceasefire, agreed three weeks ago. Neither wants to be blamed for its collapse.
With deep pessimism evident on both sides, the Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, said the truce was in "a very deep crisis", and added: "The end of the ceasefire will be a tragic event for all concerned."
The Palestinian Authority said that Israel was deliberately trying to undermine the ceasefire. Its information minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo, accused Israel of employing "all means of aggression" against the Palestinian people.
Islamic Jihad and Hamas announced that the ceasefire was null and void because of the assassination of three Palestinians on Sunday. Israel said the three were planning a bombing.
On Monday the Israeli army killed a Palestinian taxi-driver on the West Bank whom it suspected of planting explosives by the roadside. The parcel contained groceries.
Both groups claim to have more than a score of suicide bombers at the ready.
Mr Arafat has an ambiguous relationship with the two groups, having jailed members before the intifada. But all the Palestinian groups have been working together during the intifada, and Mr Arafat pointedly refused to criticise the militants last week.
Mr Peres was forced to defend himself yesterday for meeting Mr Arafat last week in Lisbon, their first meeting since Ariel Sharon became prime minister. He was criticised by rightwing members of the knesset when giving evidence to its defence and foreign affairs committee.
He warned that if he was not allowed to pursue foreign affairs in his own way he would quit the coalition government.
One of the biggest causes of strain in the coalition is the future of the Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza. Mr Peres and his Labour colleague the defence minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer have won an important symbolic battle against the right on the removal of Jewish settler outposts on the West Bank.
It emerged yesterday that Tel Aviv is to push ahead with the removal of 15 illegal Jewish outposts. Mr Ben-Elizier provoked a row with rightwing cabinet colleagues last week when he ordered the army to remove them.
Mr Sharon, though he criticised the decision to go public, is thought to be backing him.
The latest victim of violence is a 51-year-old Jewish settler, Yair Harsinai, whose body was found at Sussiya, south of Hebron, on the West Bank, yesterday. Thousands attended the funeral of a man whom neighours described as gentle, and who refused to carry a gun.
He had been tending his herd of sheep.
"At least two Palestinians ambushed him and shot him from short range - once in the head and once in the body," an Israeli army spokesman said. "Then they escaped to the [Palestinian-ruled] village of Yata."
An Israeli curfew was imposed on Yata and other parts of Hebron.
In a further punitive action, in response to the killing of a Jewish settler woman near Jenin last week, Israeli soldiers demolished 30 Palestinian shops in the town yesterday.
The Israeli security cabinet met yesterday to discuss the violence, which has continued almost daily since the ceasefire began.
They decided to keep the present policy, which Mr Sharon refers to as "restraint", while marking for assassination any Palestinians they suspect of being involved in or planning violence.
Fifteen Palestinians and nine Israelis have been killed since the ceasefire began.
Palestinian and Israeli officials believe it is only a matter of time before there is a suicide bomb, car explosion or assassination that will lead to a declaration that the ceasefire is formally over.
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