Palestinians: Cease-fire in danger
Terrorist organizations threaten renewed violence if Palestinian prisoners held by Israel not released; al-Aqsa Marytrs' Brigades consider kidnapping soldiers; security prisoners plan hunger strike tomorrow
GAZA - Some 400 security prisoners in Ashkelon's Shikma Prison and another 80 in the HaSharon Prison said they will go on hunger strike tomorrow to protest their continued incarceration and jail conditions.
The Palestinian Authority named this Saturday as Prisoners' Day. Large rallies were organized today and yesterday, especially in the Gaza Strip, during which terrorist groups said the continued calm depended upon a solution for security prisoners.
At the PIJ assembly, youth participated in a paramilitary demonstration, hinting at their readiness to take up arms against Israel. At the same time, hundreds of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members brandished weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades.
The Brigades warned that, if Israel did not release jailed terrorists, "then we will call upon our fighters, in every part of the country, to kidnap Israeli soldiers and civilians in order to free Palestinian prisoners."
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority also said they had not abandoned the cause of the prisoners.
The PA Minister for Prisoners' Affairs Sufian Abu-Zeyda threatened the cease-fire is about to collapse. "We are asking the international community and its institutions to get involved and help find a solution for this problem, and especially regarding the continued oppression of the prisoners."
Fight surrounding election to Legislative Council
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will meet tomorrow with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm a-Sheikh to discuss the security situation in the territories. Abbas will also talk about Israeli failures to live up to agreements reached two months ago.
Both sides will discuss scenarios following an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
It is not clear if internal Palestinian politics will be discussed. There has been talk within the PA about delaying July's election for the Legislative Council. Some groups say that Fatah is afraid that it will be trounced by Hamas.
Hamas and others have warned against a delay, saying that it would have "negative consequences" for intra-Palestinian relations. A Hamas statement read, "We need to end the rule of one party in Palestinian politics and switch to political pluralism."
By contrast, the PIJ said it would not participate in the elections. Muhammed al-Hindi, an official in Gaza, said that elections carried out in the shadow of the continuing occupation and settlement threat would not be truly democratic."
Still, al-Hindi said he would not call upon supporters to boycott the election.
Fatah is divided on the issue of delaying the election. The Deputy Chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council Hasan Khraysha, a senior Fatah member, said, "The elections will go ahead on the date set even as Fatah members attempt to pass a law in the legislative Council to to push off general elections."
(Raanan Ben-Zur contributed to this article)
