Some 15,000 Palestinians gathered Wednesday in the West Bank city of Nablus for the funerals of three senior members of Hamas, and heard a speaker call for the group's armed wing to resume its suicide bombings. A fourth Hamas man was buried in Ramallah.
The four activists were killed in an Israeli raid the day before.
According to AFP, hundreds of flags representing Hamas, its rival Islamic Jihad, and Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement as well as secular Palestinian groups were waved as mourners fired guns into the air and chanted religious slogans.
Truce Enforcement
A senior Palestinian official said Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority could no longer be expected to enforce a truce with Israel, due to the ongoing Israeli incursions into Palestinian Authority-ruled areas.
Palestinian cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman said the Palestinian Authority could not enforce a cease-fire under the circumstances. "The Israeli guns are being pointed to our heads," he said. "We are not able to implement any of our commitments."
U.S.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer on Wednesday called on Israelis and Palestinians to urge their governments to work for peace. "They need to hear from you that you want peace, that you want reconciliation, that you want reasonable compromise," Kurtzer said at Givat Haviva, an Israeli institution that sponsors Jewish-Arab programs.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Kurtzer recalled that his generation stormed American university offices to force change. "I don't recommend that," he said, but added that Israelis and Palestinians should take actions that will be persuasive to the two governments involved that the people have had enough and they want to move forward.
The new wave of violence appears to have caused the cancellation of a third trip to the region by U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni, who had been expected last week.
In a phone call Wednesday, Palestinian leader Arafat asked U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to send Zinni back to the region. However, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said there are no such plans. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
