The Black Vault - Palestinians Say No Crackdown Until Israel Stops Raids

By Mohammed Assadi - RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - The Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) said Saturday Israel's military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites) make it hard to heed U.S. calls for a crackdown on armed groups behind suicide bombings.

Violence has spiraled in recent days -- jeopardizing a U.S.-backed "road map" to peace -- after Israel assassinated a senior Hamas leader in revenge for the killing of 20 people in a suicide bomb attack on a Jerusalem bus earlier this week.

President Bush (news - web sites) Friday called on the Palestinians to crack down on militants, a key requirement of the road map, which paves the way for an end to three years of violence and the creation of a Palestinian state in 2005.

"If the Palestinians want to see their own state, they've got to dismantle the terrorist networks," Bush told reporters.

But the Palestinian Authority said a crackdown was impossible so long as Israeli forces continued raids in the West Bank and Gaza Strip unleashed after Tuesday's bombing and the assassination of Palestinian militant leaders.

"Now when the Palestinian territories are full of tanks...I think that it will hinder any effort that we will take," Information Minister Nabil Amr told reporters.

Fresh bloodshed appeared likely as Hamas and other militant groups vowed to avenge Israel's killing of prominent Hamas political leader Ismail Abu Shanab in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, and Israel promised to strike more militant leaders.

Tens of thousands of mourners at Abu Shanab's funeral demanded revenge as Hamas called to "all our cells of fighters in Palestine to strike in every corner of the Jewish state."

Meanwhile, an Israeli security official said Friday the killing of Abu Shanab was "just the beginning" and that Israel planned "serious retaliation on the terrorist infrastructure."

But Hamas's head in Lebanon said Saturday his group was open to discussing a new truce despite Abu Shanab's killing.

"We are ready to discuss any political ideas. But we are not ready to take positions before we know all the details," Usama Hamdan told Reuters.

PALESTINIANS URGE U.S. TO PRESSURE ISRAEL

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat asked senior U.S. envoy John Wolf in a meeting in the West Bank to pressure Israel to halt military operations so "the Palestinian Authority can take action against militants," a senior Palestinian official said.

Palestinian officials said they hoped to renegotiate a new three-way truce with militants to replace a unilateral cease-fire they dissolved after Israel killed Abu Shanab Thursday.

"We want a hudna (truce) between the whole Palestinian Authority and Israel, that Israel commit itself to as much as we do," Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told reporters.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas had coaxed the temporary cease-fire from militants to shore up the road map.

But the truce was shaky even before it was torn apart by this week's violence.

Palestinian officials accused Israel of sabotaging its plans to rein in militants by killing Abu Shanab. Israel says the Jerusalem bombing was a product of the Palestinian Authority's decision to rely on the truce in lieu of disarming militants.

Israeli forces carried out sweeps for militants in several West Bank cities following the Jerusalem bombing, including Nablus where troops killed one militants when they fired at a hospital where he was hiding Friday.

Palestinian security sources initially said three militants were killed but hospital officials said Saturday that actually one militant had died and two others were wounded. (Additional reporting by Wafa Amr and Nidal al-Mughrabi)

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