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Palestinian groups pledge to continue intifadaIsrael shuts West Bank, citing terrorism threats
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Radical and militant groups met in Gaza on Saturday to devise a strategy for dealing with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and pledged to continue their armed uprising against Israel. The groups included Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Fatah. They pledged to continue the intifada but ended the meeting with no decision on whether to halt cease-fire talks with Abbas. They agreed that Abbas' position this week at the U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian peace summit in Jordan was "not acceptable" to Palestinians, a Hamas official told CNN. The groups also emphasized the need for national unity and to continue dialogue among themselves, the official said. Differing accounts of what happened in the four-and-a-half hour meeting are being reported. A source with Islamic Jihad told CNN that the groups had agreed not to talk with Abbas until after a second meeting scheduled for Monday. Also, the group decided that no Palestinian faction will be allowed to meet with him until all the groups agree to hold talks with him. However, a Hamas source said the meeting did not include any discussion of whether to hold talks with Abbas, who is calling for all the groups to halt attacks against Israelis. Meanwhile, the Israeli government announced that, "in light of serious security alerts," it was closing the West Bank beginning at midnight Saturday [5 p.m. EDT]. The decision was made, Israeli sources said, because of a high number of alerts about possible terrorist attacks on Israelis. The closure means that Palestinians will not typically be able to travel from the West Bank into Israel. "In humanitarian cases, permission will be given from the liaison office," a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said. Israel had recently reopened the West Bank after a two-week closure in response to a series of attacks against Israeli civilians by militant Palestinian groups. Hamas: Abbas giving up too muchHamas announced Friday that it was backing out of cease-fire talks, saying Abbas was making too many concessions to Israel and the United States. It remains unclear whether other groups will follow the same course. Aides to Abbas have said they expect dialogue with Hamas to continue. The Palestinian prime minister had predicted that he would reach a cease-fire agreement with all militant Palestinian groups within three weeks. Abbas met with his Cabinet in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Saturday to brief them on the summit in Aqaba, Jordan, where Abbas, U.S. President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon showed support for the Middle East "road map" to peace. The plan sets out procedures that would lead to an independent Palestinian state existing in peace with Israel. Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said the dialogue with Abbas was halted because of Abbas' "bad position" that ignored the rights of refugees to return and the status of Jerusalem. "Abu Mazen gave the Jews what they did not deserve," Yassin said, using a popular name for Abbas. Hamas also accused the Palestinian Authority of trying to dictate to the resistance group. The authority said it had received no formal notification from Hamas that it was stopping talks and will not accept such a stance. The authority said it will continue to carry through with its pledge to clamp down on violence, no matter what its justification might be. In reaction to the development, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Mike Anton said: "There's now a real prospect for peace. All parties agree that terrorism needs to stop and that all parties must fight terror. Those who pursue terror have made clear that they are enemies of peace." Leaflet urges continued intifadaA two-page Hamas leaflet urged Palestinians not to accept the dictates of the summits in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and Aqaba, especially calls for an end to the armed intifada against Israel. The leaflet said the United States was trying to impose its will on the Palestinians, and called on the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world to oppose such dictates. The rejection of talks is a significant challenge to Abbas and his authority. If he cannot persuade Hamas and other groups to give the road map a chance, Abbas might be forced to crack down on those groups, risking a possible civil war. Abbas said at Aqaba that the Palestinians must renounce violence in their attempts to reach a peace settlement with Israel, and Sharon has said negotiations cannot resume so long as violence continues. Hamas, the PFLP and Islamic Jihad are considered terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department. Hamas has claimed responsibility for dozens of suicide bombings and attacks in Israel and attacks on Jewish settlers in the Palestinian territories. The PFLP is a Palestinian militant group that has committed numerous international terrorist attacks and has conducted attacks against Israeli or moderate Arab targets, according to the State Department. The PFLP has been a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) since the late 1960s, but its military wing has been outlawed. Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel that has carried out military operations against Israeli soldiers and civilians. Fatah is the mainstream faction and Palestinian nationalist movement of the PLO. It is dedicated to the formation of an independent Palestinian state. It is also linked to several splinter groups. -- CNN correspondents Jerrold Kessel and Kelly Wallace, and producer Talal Abu Rahma, contributed to this report.
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