RAMALLAH Ñ The ruling Fatah movement has failed to reach agreement
with Hamas on the future of their war against Israel.
Palestinian sources said Hamas refused a Fatah demand to limit attacks
on Israel over the next three months. They said Fatah called on the Islamic
opposition to end suicide missions in the Jewish state over the course of
the Israeli elections campaign, scheduled to end by February.
Despite the urging of Egypt, Hamas refused to consider such a request,
the sources said. The meeting was held in a secret location in Cairo and
attended by Egyptian intelligence officials. The Fatah delegation was headed
by Zakaria Al Agha and Hamas's team was led by Mussa Abu Marzouk, based in
Damascus.
[On Thursday, Israeli special forces captured Fatah insurgent Mohammed
Nayfeh. Nayfeh, alleged to have planned an attack on an Israeli kibbutz in
which five people were killed on Monday, surrendered to the military in the
northern West Bank.]
Fatah and Hamas agreed to establish a panel to continue discussions
meant to reconcile the two groups. They also agreed to return to Cairo for
talks. No date was disclosed.
A statement by the two groups said the panel would seek to ensure
coordination in the war against Israel. The statement also urged the need
for Palestinian unity.
The two groups have been conducting a secret war over the last few
weeks. Hamas agents assassinated a senior Palestinian Authority police
official last month and PA agents tried to abduct a Hamas political leader
in Gaza City earlier this week. Fatah dominates the PA.
The talks ended as tension again gripped PA security forces in the Gaza
Strip. Palestinian sources said PA Chairman Yasser Arafat has ordered the
arrest of a colonel who works in the National Security Forces command on
charges that he filed a false report to Egypt on an Arafat aide.
The aide was identified as Samir Masharawi, a leading officer in the
Preventive Security Apparatus in the Gaza Strip and chosen to serve as a
member of the Fatah delegation in the Cairo talks with Hamas. The sources
said Egypt has increased its monitoring of the PA in the Gaza Strip in the
absence of Arafat's presence and the increased smuggling of weapons and
insurgents from Egypt to the strip.
