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The Palestinian security chief called for an end to suicide bombings against Israel, denouncing "murders for no reason," in an interview published yesterday in an Israeli newspaper.
Israel's chief of police warned that despite relative calm for the past three weeks, Palestinian militants are still trying to carry out attacks against Israelis. Militant Hamas pledged revenge for Israel's killing of four civilians in Gaza on Thursday.
Interviewed in the Yediot Ahronot daily, the Palestinian security chief, Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yehiyeh, said he told leaders of Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to "stop the suicide bombings, stop the murders for no reason."
An aide to Yehiyeh confirmed that he had talked to the Israeli newspaper.
Yehiyeh, a retired general, was appointed interior minister in June in a Cabinet reshuffle, taking charge of Palestinian security forces. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had held the post until then.
In the interview, Yehiyeh said that "suicide attacks are contrary to the Palestinian tradition, against international law and harm the Palestinian people."
During nearly two years of Palestinian-Israeli fighting, more than 250 Israelis have been killed in more than 70 suicide attacks, most of them in Israeli cities.
Arafat has on occasion spoken out against suicide bombings, though Israel says he has encouraged violence against Israeli civilians.
Palestinian intellectuals recently published a statement calling for a halt to bombings, saying they harm the Palestinian cause. However, polls indicate that a majority of Palestinians continue to support attacks on Israelis, as a way of settling scores for Israeli military strikes.
Israel has imposed restrictions and travel bans in the West Bank, crippling the economy, explaining that the measures are necessary to keep bombers out of Israel.
Yehiyeh has been meeting with leaders of Palestinian groups to persuade them to accept a plan he worked out with Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, aimed at easing crippling Israeli restrictions in the West Bank.
(eastday.com August 31, 2002)
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