TEL AVIV Ñ Hizbullah operations in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip continue to disrupt the U.S.-backed ceasefire.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Iran's increased
involvement in the Palestinian areas has hampered his efforts to restore
control, a senior Israeli source said. Abbas told Sharon that PA forces would find it
difficult to confront Iran and its agents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israeli military sources said Hizbullah has increased funding to a range
of Palestinian insurgents in PA-controlled areas in an
attempt to maintain the war against Israel.
Hizbullah has also maintained its attacks on Israel over the northern
border with Lebanon, Middle East Newsline reported. Last month, Hizbullah launched 19 artillery attacks
toward northern Israel in response to what the Shi'ite group termed Israeli
military flights along the border with Lebanon.
The sources said Hizbullah received the funds from Iran, which objects to a U.S.-sponsored ceasefire
between Israel and the PA that would include insurgency groups.
Hizbullah has sponsored insurgents from a range of groups, the sources
said. They include the ruling Fatah militia as well as the Iranian-backed
Islamic Jihad.
Last month, Israeli National Security Council director Ephraim Halevy
warned that Israel must eliminate the Hizbullah threat over the next year.
Halevy told a strategic seminar at Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for
Strategic Studies that the Hizbullah threat need not be removed by military
means, rather by international pressure on the Shi'ite group.
