THE MIDDLE EAST: A senior Palestinian minister yesterday lashed out at Hamas's tactic of killing Israeli civilians following a wave of deadly attacks by the radical Islamic group which has rocked Israel.
"Every form of resistance is legitimate except hitting innocent civilians," Mr Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian minister for international cooperation, said yesterday.
Hamas claimed responsibility for yesterday's bus blast at a junction in northern Israel that killed nine Israelis plus the suicide bomber, and wounded scores of others.
It also took responsibility for last Wednesday's bombing of a cafeteria at Jerusalem's Hebrew University that killed seven people, including five Americans.
"Nobody is asking the Islamists to stop resisting. But they could stop killing civilians and instead conduct suicide operations against Israeli tanks," he said.
"We need to choose a tactic that will put us on the moral high ground to gain international support and enlist support within the Israeli ranks."
Mr Shaath stressed that the Palestinian Authority (PA) was unable to contain armed groups such as Hamas due to "the destruction of the PA security capabilities" by Israel, which has bombed a large number of police and security offices in the Gaza Strip and attacked others in the West Bank.
"We tried then to resort to dialogue - with armed groups - but Israel did everything to render our task impossible," he said, pointing to the July 22nd killing of Hamas's top military leader, Salah Shehade, in an air raid just as Palestinians said they were about to secure a truce among armed groups.
Hamas officials have said, however, they had merely been "considering the idea" of stopping attacks again civilians at the time.
Mr Shaath also slammed Hamas for being "the guilty party" in refusing to facilitate the conclusion of a unilateral ceasefire.
"So far, we have not closed the door to further dialogue but time is running out.
"We cannot really continue like this: with the PA that condemns the killing of civilians and people that go on television and publicly advocate further killing civilians," he said, pointing the finger at Hamas.
"It is Hamas that is refusing to participate in a national dialogue because they don't want to make it work.
"They are procrastinating, thinking they can go on and win more of public support by conducting such operations," he fumed.
He said Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat had committed himself to not attacking Israeli civilians "10 times but failed because of these so-called Islamists".
But he also said that "one is mistaken to believe Hamas is dedicated to continue the armed struggle come what may. It stopped operations between 1996 and 2000. We have to find a way to make Hamas's interest coincide with those of the Palestinian people," he said.
In the meantime, Mr Shaath said Hamas should follow the steps of the radical Lebanese Shiite movement Hizbullah "when it endorsed an April 1996 understanding and stopped shooting at Israeli civilians and from Lebanese civilian areas.
Hizbullah's commitment paved the way for negotiations, the UN got involved and Israel eventually withdrew from south Lebanon," he said.
However, more than 10,000 Palestinian supporters of Hamas marched through Gaza City yesterday evening to celebrate yesterday's bomb blast.
Three demonstrations led by trucks mounted with loudspeakers converged at the centre of the city in a rally which ended at the house of a militant killed in a failed attack on a Jewish settlement.
Members of the group said the bombing of the bus earlier in the day near a Jewish shrine close to the town of Safad, north of Lake Galilee, was the "second response" to Israel's assassination of the leader of their armed wing last month. - (AFP)