The new Hamas-led Palestinian government is quietly working to end a surge in violence, urging rival militant groups in the Gaza Strip to refrain from launching rockets at Israel without official permission.
Although the rocket attacks have not stopped and Hamas says it still supports violent resistance against Israel, its subtle efforts at persuasion look like an attempt to stabilize a chaotic situation so that it can focus on governing the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
‘We want resistance to be arranged and organized,’ said government spokesman Ghazi Hamad, adding that Hamas would try to get control over the rocket fire by negotiating with other militant factions. Hamas has not been participating in the attacks.
The emnity between the two sides prompted Israel's Security Cabinet Sunday to declare the Hamas-led Palestinian government a ‘hostile entity’ and ruled out contacts with it.
Hamas rejected the Israeli decision and called for international action against Israel. ‘The world should realize the fact that democracy was our choice and they should punish the (Israeli) occupation and not our people,’ said Palestinian Cabinet minister Atef Edwan of Hamas. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Israeli action violated signed agreements.
In the latest violence, an 8-year-old Palestinian girl was killed when an Israeli artillery shell hit her house in northern Gaza, hospital officials and witnesses said.
Relatives and neighbors drove bleeding children to the small local hospital. Doctors feverishly bandaged a wailing infant on a blood-splattered bed as others took away the dusty and bloody body of the dead girl.
The army had no immediate comment, but confirmed it was shelling populated areas where militants fire rockets. Three rockets fired from the northern Gaza village of Beit Lahiya landed in Israel on Monday, the army said.
The Israeli human rights group B'tselem said the killing was the inevitable result of Israel's decision to shell areas close to Palestinian homes, and Israel is legally responsibility for the outcome. The group also called on Palestinians not to use residential areas for ‘military actions.’
The fighting with Israel has escalated in recent days, with militants repeatedly firing rockets into Israel and the army responding with airstrikes, artillery fire and attacks from naval gunboats.
A total of 17 Palestinians, including 13 militants, have been killed in the Israeli offensive since Friday. There have been no Israeli casualties from the rocket fire.
The Palestinians called on the U.N. Security Council Monday to take urgent action to stop what they called an escalating military campaign by Israeli forces that has led to a dramatic increase in Palestinian casualties in recent days.
At a meeting Monday afternoon, Arab nations decided to ask the council to hold an open meeting on the upsurge in violence, Palestinian U.N. observor Riyad Mansour said.
‘The central objective is to stop this Israeli aggression against Gaza immediately because this escalation is threatening international peace and security and that is the business of the Security Council,’ the Palestinian envoy said after the Arab Group meeting.
Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections in January on a platform pledging to end government corruption and improve public services. But since being sworn into office less than two weeks ago, the government has found itself facing international isolation, a financial crisis, Palestinian infighting and growing violence with Israel.
A senior Palestinian security official in Gaza said Hamas has not officially proposed a cease-fire but is sending clear signals that it wants quiet.
‘Without a cease-fire, Hamas can't build anything in Gaza. It can't get anything done while F-16s and Apache helicopters are flying overhead, Israeli artillery is being fired and rocket attacks are going on,’ he said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Hamas officials have confirmed they are interested in extending a year-old cease-fire with Israel, which the group has largely honored.
An Israeli security official said it appears Hamas is trying to regulate the rocket fire because uncontrolled violence is against its interests. The official was not permitted to be identified under military rules.
Islamic Jihad, which has been behind much of the rocket fire, said it would continue the attacks.
Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, is under intense pressure from Israel and the international community to renounce violence and recognize Israel, demands it has so far rejected.
In Luxembourg, European Union foreign ministers on Monday endorsed a freeze of EU aid to the Palestinian government. The U.S. and Norway have also suspended aid to the Palestinian Authority.
Hamad denounced the decision as part of a policy of starvation. He said it was ‘punishment of the Palestinian people for their democratic choice ... and will lead for more tension and instability in the region.’
Israel also has suspended the monthly transfer of $55 million in tax revenues it collects for the Palestinians.
The sanctions have already crippled the Palestinian treasury just two weeks after the Hamas-led Cabinet took office and Palestinian officials said they did not know when they would be able to pay monthly salaries of the government's 140,000 employees. Paychecks were due on April 1.
If peace talks cannot be resumed, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he will unilaterally draw Israel's final border with the West Bank. His plan calls for withdrawing from much of the West Bank, while strengthening key settlement blocs. The plan falls short of Palestinian claims to all the West Bank.
Olmert hopes to complete the withdrawal before the next U.S. presidential election in 2008, a senior aide said in a report published Monday. Olmert, whose Kadima Party won last month's parliamentary election, had previously said he aimed to complete his plan by the end of his term in 2010. Olmert's aides believe President Bush would be amenable to the program.