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View from a watchtower in Morag (AP)
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| By Associated Press April 15, 2005 |
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| AP |
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A Jewish settler leader in the Gaza Strip said Friday settlers would comply with a Defense Ministry order to return army-issue weapons, defusing a potentially serious problem ahead of this summer's planned Israeli evacuation of the volatile territory.
The decision by the Defense Ministry on Thursday to collect weapons reflected growing concern that extremists might resort to violence during the evacuation, set for late July. Many pullout opponents have said they would resist non-violently, but fears persist that a few could resort to live fire.
The Israeli Defense Ministry said the weapons-collection order applied to army-issue weapons in all 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the northern West Bank slated for evacuation. Private weapons were not to be affected, it said. Officials said the handover of weapons would take place near the time of the pullout, but did not specify a date.
The military said it doesn't release details on the number of guns it has issued. But settlers have estimated there are 3,500 military-issue and privately held weapons in the settlements that are to be dismantled.
Speaking on Army Radio Friday, settler leader Avner Shimoni, head of the Gaza Coast Settlers Council, said he favored complying with the Defense Ministry order.
"We won't use these weapons to shoot, and if we have to return them we'll return them," he said. "The weapons were given to us for self-defense only. I, at least, and my friends will turn in these weapons."
But another settler leader, Eran Sternberg, said shortly after the announcement that settlers wouldn't turn over their arms, a sign of the conflicting voices coming out of the settlements ahead of the pullout.
According to a poll published Friday in the Yediot Ahronot daily, 74 percent of the 402 settlers questioned said they would resist evacuating forces passively, while 11 percent said they would employ force. The poll had a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points.
In an effort to impose law and order in Palestinian areas, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday ordered the consolidation of more than a dozen security agencies into three branches under a single command. Palestinian security forces have long operated as independent militias, contributing to rising lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and limiting their effectiveness.
The timing of Abbas' move may be linked to his upcoming trip to the United States, which, like Israel, has been pressing him to rein in militants.
An unraveling of the truce Abbas announced Feb. 8 with Sharon would stall Washington's efforts to restart peace moves _ and Israel's killing of a Palestinian on Thursday brought threats from militants of renewed violence.
Israeli forces killed Ibrahim Hashash, 23, from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group linked to Abbas' Fatah party, in a raid on the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus.
The military said Hashash opened fire and soldiers shot back, killing him. Balata residents said the Israelis opened fire without provocation.
Al Aqsa cells in Ramallah and Nablus issued leaflets declaring their unofficial truce with Israel to be over. But in Gaza, Al Aqsa spokesman Abu Mohammed said his group had the right to retaliate for the killing, but the truce would not be ended.
The conflicting statements reflected the lack of a central authority in Al Aqsa _ and the challenge Abbas faces in restoring order.
Abbas said the killing was an Israeli truce violation, according to the Palestinian news agency, but he did not threaten to call off the cease-fire.
In a rare case, a 21 year-old Palestinian gunman infiltrated the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on Friday from a refugee camp in Syria, but was captured by troops, Israeli military officials said.
The officials, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said the infiltrator was a Palestinian resident of the Yarmouk refugee camp and an operative of Abbas' Fatah party. Under interrogation he disclosed that he planned to kidnap an Israeli officer and bring him back to Syria, they said.
Fatah and other militant organizations operate camps in Syria under Syrian and Iranian sponsorship to train guerrillas to attack Israeli targets.
Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 Middle East War and subsequently extended Israeli law to the area. American-brokered talks to return it to Syria as part of an overall Syrian-Israeli peace agreement broke down in 2000.
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