GAZA CITY, Dec 21 (AFP) - The radical Islamic militant group Hamas announced it will stop its suicide bombings in Israel and all mortar attacks "until further notice," its political wing said in a statement Friday morning.
It said it was taking the decision to preserve "national unity" among Palestinians amid growing clashes between its supporters and security forces acting under orders from beleagured Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"We announce a halt to all martyr operations in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1948 (Israel) and an end to all mortar shelling until further notice," the group said in a statement received by AFP in Gaza City.
"Martyr operations" is a term typically used for suicide attacks.
Hamas also said it had decided to stop all its firing of mortars against Israeli targets, which have become practically a daily occurrence at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
"We ask all members of Hamas, especially the al-Qassam wing, to implement this decision now," it said, addressing its military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
"This decision is to protect our Palestinian national union and to guard our way of struggle until we get our independence, although we know the Israeli occupation and its aggression policy will continue," it said.
A senior Israeli official reacted to the announcement by saying it would judge the ceasefire "on the facts."
"We will judge on the facts whether this decision is effectively carried out," said Yarden Vatikai, spokesman for Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer.
Vatikai also asserted that, overall, the Palestinian Authority "has still not deployed serious efforts to stop terrorist actions."
However, he did acknowledge that there had been "sporadic interventions" by the Palestinian police to halt anti-Israeli attacks and that recently there had been a "relative decline in violence.
A senior Hamas official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP on Wednesday that the group would halt its suicide bombings inside Israel but would not make a formal announcement to that effect.
However, some members of the political wing of Hamas denied that statement.
Hamas, along with its smaller counterpart, Islamic Jihad, has rocked Israel with a gruesome campaign of suicide bombings since the start of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in 1993.
Its deadly back-to-back suicide bombings on December 1 and 2 in Jersusalem and northern Israel, which left 26 civilians dead, triggered a massive Israeli military retaliation, and threw the militant group on a collision course with Arafat's Palestinian Auhthority.
Arafat, under heavy Israeli and international pressure, launched a huge campaign of arrests of more than 180 Islamic militants and shut at least 40 offices and charities affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
A young Palestinian was killed Thursday night in clashes between security forces and Hamas members who were trying to free a group of militants who had been arrested in the northern Gaza Strip for attempting to fire mortars at Jewish settlements.
Some 27 others were also wounded in clashes Thursday between security forces and Hamas supporters over the Palestinian Authority's attempt to arrest a senior Hamas leader, Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi, at his Gaza home.
There has so far been no response from Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades to the call to cease fire.
Meanwhile, a Hamas official in Damascus said the group had informed other Palestinian groups about its decision.
"Hamas has informed our comrades and other organizations in Palestine of the decision to temporarily halt attacks in the territories occupied since 1948," said a senior official, who asked not to be identified.
bur/dab/al AFP
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Received by NewsEdge Insight: 12/21/2001 06:43:02
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