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| By Israel Insider staff December 30, 2007 |
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Israel can take no steps to forward peace if the Palestinians do not fulfill its obligations, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told ministers at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. "As long as the Palestinian Authority doesn't implement the measures demanded of them, in the way which is demanded of them in order to act against terror organizations, the state of Israel will not be able to make any changes on the ground," he said.
Unilateral action would "expose Israel to dangers and could bring about security problems," Olmert continued. "We do not plan to compromise on these issues, and they will continue to be an integral part of any dialogue with the PA."
At the beginning of the cabinet meeting, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai also condemned the attack and said that the murder of the young men justified an immediate cessation of negotiations with the Palestinians. "The negotiations need to cease the moment there are fatalities," Yishai said. "The Palestinians need to stop asking us to fulfill our road map obligations before they fulfill theirs. The negotiations are hurting us and we need to stop them."
On Saturday, PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad said that PA security forces had arrested an unspecified number of suspects in connection with the murder -- unspecified, no doubt, because the PA never does anything more than unspecified actions with terror suspects.
"We have suspects in custody already," he said, sharing a podium with President Shimon Peres at an economic conference in Herzliya on Saturday night. "We are cooperating and coordinating with the Israeli security services, weapons have already been returned to Israeli security in connection with this particular incident," Fayad said, declining to specify details about the suspects. The IDF was unable to confirm either part of his statement as of Saturday night.
Typically the suspects are held by the Palestinian Authority for a period of "protective custody" so that Israeli forces cannot apprehend them.
Fayad expressed condolences for the victims of the terror attack, and said the PA had handed over to Israeli authorities the dead men's weapons, which their Palestinian attackers had stolen. PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki also said the attack was counter-productive, telling Israel Radio that "the group that carried out the attack seeks to sabotage peace negotiations and the Palestinian Authority's plan to increase security in the Palestinian territories."
Malki added that "severe" steps -- unspecified, naturally -- would be taken against those responsible for the attack.
Hours after the attack, IDF troops raided a local Hebron hospital and detained two Palestinians believed to have been wounded by Amihai and Rubin during the attack. An additional five Hebron residents were also detained under suspicion of involvement in the attack, its planning or its aftermath.
The Fatah-affiliated Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed credit for the shooting at a press conference in the Gaza Strip. The Islamic Jihad said the dead gunman was a member of its Hebron-based cell, adding that three others who participated in the attack had survived the clash and were in hiding, not apprehended by Israel. The terror groups called the shooting an act of revenge for the IDF killing Palestinian terrorists in Gaza. |
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