Hamas vowed to continue inter-factional discussions on a united Palestinian leadership despite a Palestinian official's announcement that the talks had failed. "We will continue the negotiations next week, because the talks between us last night did not yield any result," Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab told AFP.
International cooperation minister Nabil Shaath said Thursday night that the Palestinians' attempts to reach a common strategy towards Israel and agree on a united leadership document had failed because of Hamas.
He said Hamas had backed away from articles in the document that called for an end to attacks inside Israel and the creation of a state inside the 1967 borders.
In an interview with the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera, another Hamas leader, Abdelaziz Rantissi confirmed the points his group rejected but reacted angrily at Shaath's declaration that the talks were over. "I object to Nabil Shaath's groundless accusations. More than five factions reject some items in this document. However, Nabil Shaath did not mention them," he told Al-Jazeera TV.
"Palestinian dialogue has not stopped," he added.
On the ground, the Israeli army demolished late Thursday night the family homes of two Palestinian bombers in the West Bank, Israel Radio reported.
Troops destroyed the home of Iyad Sawalha, an Islamic Jihad activist responsible for the Megiddo Junction bus bomb attack in which 17 people were killed two months ago, in the village of Rais. Witnesses said 12 people lived in the two-storey house and that Sawalha's father is a U.S. citizen.
In the village of Anabta, near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, soldiers demolished the home of Murad Mohammed Abu Assal, who wounded two Israeli security agents in a suicide attack in Taibeh eight months ago.
Meanwhile, talks on the "Gaza First" proposal for a phased Israeli withdrawal from recently reoccupied areas in the Gaza Strip took another step backward as a meeting set for Thursday night was postponed. An Israeli defense ministry spokesman said there would be no meeting Thursday but one would be held in the coming days.
Shortly before the discussions were due to start, Israel's Channel 2 television said the meeting had been put off until next week, citing serious divergences of the two sides' views.
According to AFP, the Palestinian leadership said the talks were to concentrate on how to reach a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, where the plan was expected to start, and then Bethlehem, in the West Bank.
In another development, Israeli forces withdrew from a building near Yasser Arafat's Ramallah headquarters, and three tanks pulled back. The Israelis also left the seven-story building belonging to the Palestinian culture ministry Thursday afternoon, with another three tanks stationed outside also pulling back. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
