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Israel, Palestinians urged to restrain violence
( 2001-05-26 09:54 ) (7 )

Israeli and Palestinian leaders came under growing international pressure on Saturday to put a halt to eight months of bloodshed following suicide bombings in the heart of the Jewish state and the Gaza Strip.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell appealed to both sides to show restraint, and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana called on them to "revive hope and trust and return to the peace process".

But after another day of violence, there were few signs that Israelis and Palestinians were any closer to ending their hostilities, which have claimed more than 500 lives since peace talks broke down last September.

Two Palestinians blew themselves up in a suicide bombing that injured 67 people in the central Israeli town of Hadera on on Friday just hours after a truck driver died carrying out an attack against an Israeli army outpost in the Gaza Strip.

After nightfall, a Palestinian activist with President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction was killed and several others wounded when their car exploded in the West Bank town of Nablus.

A Palestinian source close to the activists said a grenade they were carrying detonated by accident, but the official Palestinian news agency later carried a statement in which the Palestinian Authority accused Israel of carrying out an "assassination".

The Israeli army said its forces played no role in the explosion.

MEASURED RESPONSE

Friday's bombings carried out by militant Islamic groups were the kinds of bloody attacks that would normally draw swift, harsh Israeli retaliation against Palestinian targets.

When a suicide bomber killed himself and five others at a shopping mall a week earlier in the seaside city of Netanaya, Israel unleashed its warplanes against Palestinian targets for the first time since the 1967 Middle East war.

But this time Israeli officials signalled that they were taking a more measured response.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon seized the opportunity to repeat his call for a ceasefire + an initiative that Palestinians dismissed as a propaganda ploy when he first announced it on Tuesday night.

"I repeat a call and hope that the head of the Palestinian Authority Arafat and the Palestinian Authority will finally instruct and call for a ceasefire," Sharon told a news conference.

But he also issued a veiled threat, saying "we won't sit with our hands tied" and giving Arafat only a few more days to consider his proposal.

Palestinian leaders disputed Israeli claims they were acting with greater restraint, pointing to the destruction of a Palestinian police station in the Gaza Strip on Friday in apparent reprisal for a truck bombing there.

"What is needed now is more than Sharon's public relations stunts. The Israeli violence...did not stop for a minute," senior Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told Reuters.

The United States was continuing its efforts to broker a diplomatic solution.

Arafat was expected to meet soon with US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, Consul General Richard Shlicher and the designated Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns, US officials said.

Palestinian officials confirmed Arafat's interest in a meeting but said no firm date had been set.

"Let's not wait for other things to happen. Let's just do it now and stop the violence," Powell said in a television interview from Johannesburg.

Referring to the attack in Hadera that targeted a municipal bus with a car bomb, Powell said: "So what has been accomplished? Two more young men have given their lives for their cause...Has that moved anything one way or the other? No."

"Will retaliation help? No. The violence will continue," Powell said. "So I call on all leaders of the world to call on leaders in the region to have an unconditional cessation of violence."

At least 447 Palestinians, 87 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed in the revolt.