Hamas on Sunday dismissed as "unacceptable" Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's threat to arrest any Palestinian who violates the latest cease-fire with Israel. Meanwhile, several Palestinian armed groups warned that they would resume their attacks unless Israel also halted its military operations in the West Bank. At least three groups, including Islamic Jihad, have refused to sign on to the cease-fire agreement.
One of them is the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which said it would not abide by the cease-fire as long as Israel continued to arrest its members in the West Bank. The group, which belongs to Abbas's Fatah party, was responding to the arrest of Mahmoud Kadoura, a top member of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, in Ramallah.
Abu Obaidah, a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin Kassam, also warned that the cease-fire would collapse unless Israel stopped its military operations in the West Bank immediately. "The Israeli aggression must stop in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip," he said. "This is a temporary cease-fire and any Israeli assault on our people in the West Bank will be viewed as a violation of the agreement."
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is a branch of Fatah.
In a way it’s hard to fault the terror masters for not wanting more. Israeli Prime Minister is hardly the master of resoluteness. The prime objective of the Gaza Strip incursion was to obtain the release of IDF Corporal Shalit and ending the kassam fire was the secondary consideration. If Olmert would cave on his first objective, and ignore violations on the second; why not go whole hog?
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