Palestinian Fatah Armed Wing Decides to Halt Attacks on Israel

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 02, 2002

Palestinian Fatah Armed Wing Decides to Halt Attacks on Israel

The armed wing of the Palestinian mainstream Fatah movement, known as the Al Aqsa Martyrs Battalions, announced on Tuesday in a statement that it has decided to halt armed attacks on Israel.

The armed wing of the Palestinian mainstream Fatah movement, known as the Al Aqsa Martyrs Battalions, announced on Tuesday in a statement that it has decided to halt armed attacks on Israel.

The group that is mainly active in the West Bank said that it respects Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's call for militants to stop armed and suicide bombing attacks against Israel.

Palestinian sources said that the statement was distributed in the West Bank, and its copies were also seen in Gaza, adding that it is the first time that the group has made such an announcement since the beginning of the intifada, or uprising against the Israeli occupation, in late September in 2000.

On December 16, Arafat delivered a televised speech to the Palestinians, calling on militant groups to stop all kinds of armed attacks on Israel, including mortar attacks at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The Arafat-led Fatah movement and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) have agreed to stop attacks on Israel in the name of "not giving Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon the excuse to destroy the Palestinians."

In addition, the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) has indirectly announced that it respected the Palestinian consensus and the national unity of the Palestinian people and will not give Israel the excuse to destroy the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

However, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Battalions, which is called the Intifada Popular Resistance Committee in the Gaza Strip, had refused to halt attacks on Israel, saying that the intifada and resistance must continue until the end of the Israeli military occupation.

In the statement, the group announced that it has decided to respect Arafat's call for halting attacks on Israel in the name of "not giving Sharon the excuse to destroy Palestinian national achievements."

Most of members and militants of the group, founded several months after the intifada began, are not only Fatah activists, but also security officers working in different PNA security apparatus.

Arresting militants of the group for violating Arafat's order and dismissing some members are part of the PNA's crackdown on militants.

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