A Palestinian Cabinet Minister Urges End to Suicide Bombings

The Palestinian interior minister said in an interview published Friday that militants must halt suicide bombings against Israelis or face “isolation” by Palestinian society.

But the Hamas group rejected his appeal, and violence continued, with Palestinians killing a second woman accused of collaborating with Israel, this one the 18-year-old niece of a woman slain last week.

Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yehiyeh said in the interview that he has asked Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to “stop the suicide bombings, stop the murders for no reason.”

Yehiyeh told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot that “suicide attacks are contrary to the Palestinian tradition, against international law and harm the Palestinian people.”

Yehiyeh acknowledged his failure to secure agreement for an end to attacks in meetings this month in the Gaza Strip but added, “If the suicide attacks continue, these factions will find themselves isolated in Palestinian society.”

Hamas official Abdulaziz Rantisi dismissed Yehiyeh’s appeal.

“He should have called on the Zionists to end their occupation and massacres. That is enough reason for pursuing the resistance and the martyrdom operations,” Rantisi said.

During the nearly two years of current Israeli-Palestinian fighting, more than 250 Israelis have been killed in about 70 suicide attacks.

In the West Bank city of Tulkarm, an 18-year-old Palestinian woman was shot dead Friday by militants from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, affiliated with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.

Some sources said the militants accused Rajaa Ibrahim of planting the bomb that killed a local militant leader, Raed Karni, on Jan. 13. Others said she had provided information to Israel that allowed troops to track down Karni.

Brigade members said they killed her in a deserted house and dumped her body outside the Tulkarm hospital.

Ibrahim’s aunt, Ikhlas Khouli, was killed by Al Aqsa militants a week ago for alleged collaboration, in the first such case involving a woman after dozens of killings of men accused of collaborating.