Palestinians Dismiss Call for Cease-Fire

Maged Masri cradled his M-16 automatic rifle and with white ink inscribed on the ammo clip: “We will die and never surrender.”

A cease-fire is the furthest thing from Masri’s mind. His men, who have been ambushing Jewish settlers and confronting Israeli soldiers for the last eight months, have no intention of giving up the fight.

“Even if there are 100 orders to hold fire, if we still see Israelis, we will keep shooting at them,” he said.

From the angry Palestinian streets to the offices of Yasser Arafat’s top aides, there was no enthusiasm Wednesday for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s call for a truce in the relentless warfare that has claimed about 550 lives.

Quite the contrary: Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli building contractor near the Jewish settlement of Ariel and opened fire on the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo, on Jerusalem’s outskirts, seriously wounding an 84-year-old man. The Palestinians accused the Israeli army of making new incursions into their territory in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, gun battles also raged on Gaza’s border with Egypt, injuring at least 38 Palestinians. Israelis and Palestinians blamed each other for starting that exchange.

Arafat’s aides on Wednesday were quick to dismiss the Sharon cease-fire offer as a public relations gimmick. The Palestinian Authority president, in Paris to meet with French President Jacques Chirac, said a cease-fire was possible only as part of a package of measures, including a halt to the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian officials say they cannot call off the intifada, or uprising, unless they have tangible gains to show their public.

Despite the persistent violence, Sharon early today ordered Israel’s unilateral cease-fire to continue to give Arafat time to follow suit, Israeli state radio reported.

An immediate truce and the settlement moratorium are among the recommendations made by an international panel of inquiry led by former Sen. George J. Mitchell (D-Maine).

Sharon repeatedly has refused to consider hemming in the settlements. In response to renewed U.S. pressure, however, he ordered his army to halt offensive operations and to fire only in life-threatening situations.

In Washington, President Bush telephoned Sharon and Arafat on Wednesday to drive home the need to stop the violence. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said Bush told the two leaders that Mitchell’s report offers a chance to end the worst Arab-Israeli violence in a generation.

In many ways, the success of any effort to restore calm to this blood-soaked region depends on whether Masri and thousands of Palestinian fighters like him can be reined in. That question also is at the core of debate over whether Arafat can reimpose control over his rebellious, tormented people.

Masri and his men are part of an armed wing of Arafat’s Fatah movement that has come to be known as the Tanzim, or Organization. Here in the hard-line city of Nablus, where they control the seething Balata refugee camp, the militias say they will continue to fight until the Israeli presence in the West Bank disappears.

They want to rid the region of both the Israeli soldiers who sit on the ridges overlooking Nablus and the several thousand Jews who live in settlements to the south and east. The nearby settlers are considered among the most extreme in their determination to hold on to the land.

Support for Arafat

In an interview, Masri, 29, professed obedience to Arafat, who is still the most powerful Palestinian official despite doubts about his continued influence and command. Masri said he is confident Arafat will not order an end to the shootings until the Palestinians have driven out the Israelis.

“Unless we see the Israelis pull out immediately, then there will be no cease-fire,” said Masri, who spent five years in Israeli jails. “This talk of cease-fire is only to give Sharon a chance to finish what he started: expropriating our land, building more settlements.”

Masri’s sidekick, who would identify himself only as Yasser, 29, said the Israeli withdrawal had to be complete.

“A cease-fire can only be part of a process that leads to something,” he said, his M-16 resting nearby. “A cease-fire does not mean stopping the intifada.”

Masri and Yasser are not disillusioned peace advocates who have given up on the political process; they are the hardened fighters who, one way or another, have prepared for war with Israel for many years. They have been armed and trained since the Palestinian Authority gained control of part of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1994 and 1995, and are now organized in paramilitary units determined to eject the Israelis.

Last October, they led the daily and nightly assaults here on Joseph’s Tomb, a Jewish shrine guarded by Israeli forces that eventually were forced to withdraw. Palestinian mobs then trashed the site.

As Fatah members, they take orders from Arafat or his direct underlings. Another dozen or more security services compete for power in the West Bank and Gaza and answer to their own chains of command, with Arafat the ultimate authority.

Israeli, Palestinian and Western analysts are divided over how much control Arafat has over the militarized forces in his territory. While there is consensus that he at least tacitly approves of many operations, tensions are so explosive now and hatreds so deep that it is not clear he could end all hostilities if he wanted to do so. And if he did make such a decision, it would take some time before he could bring the various forces and factions into line.

Arafat also would have trouble reining in the more radical Islamic groups, such as Hamas, which are responsible for most of the terrorism that has claimed numerous Israeli lives. Arafat had arrested Hamas militants but released most when the revolt erupted last September. Israeli intelligence believes that many of the radical groups are cooperating with more mainstream Palestinian factions.

Weapons Proliferate

Under the 1993 Oslo peace accords, Palestinian security forces were allowed to have thousands of machine guns, assault rifles and pistols, much of the weaponry supplied by Israel. In addition, large caches have been smuggled into Palestinian territory from Egypt, Jordan and Israel or manufactured domestically. Recently, the militants have added mortars to their arsenal and, judging from intercepted shipments, may have acquired surface-to-air missiles and artillery.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, meanwhile, tried to remain optimistic about the chances of forging a cease-fire. He said he had learned of the Palestinian accusation that the call for a truce was just a gimmick.

“Even if it’s a trick,” Peres told reporters in Jerusalem, “then let them do the same trick.”

But the Palestinians were having none of it.

“Sharon’s call for a cease-fire is misleading and inaccurate since this is not a war between two armies or two states but rather an aggression by an occupation army against our occupied people,” Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed-Rabbo said. And, he added ominously, “we cannot, and we will not, guarantee the security of those who steal and confiscate Palestinian land.”

*

Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington contributed to this report.