Palestinian militia vow to renew attacks

PALESTINIAN militiamen said yesterday they would renew their attacks in Israel to avenge two leaders killed in a mysterious West Bank explosion — even as Yasser Arafat’s deputy said the armed uprising was a mistake and must be halted.

Israel rejected Palestinian allegations it was behind the blast in the Jenin refugee camp that killed the local leaders of the Islamic militant group Hamas and of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia affiliated with Arafat's Fatah movement.

In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian bomber blew up a car near an Israeli-Palestinian liaison office, killing himself, but causing no injuries to bystanders. A radical PLO faction claimed responsibility. In a West Bank refugee camp, a drummer who wakes up residents for a pre-dawn meal during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, was killed by Israeli undercover troops, his colleague said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, meanwhile, reaffirmed his conditional support for Palestinian statehood a hotly contested issue in the race for leadership of his Likud party. Mr Sharon's challenger, Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says he will not permit the establishment of a Palestinian state under any circumstance.

If a peace deal is reached and Palestinian violence stops, "I don't believe there is a statesman who would oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state," Mr Sharon said, adding it would have to be demilitarised and Israel would retain control over borders.

Mr Sharon is expected to trounce Netanyahu in today's vote.

If Sharon wins, it means he is likely to keep his job, since Likud is also expected to defeat the moderate Labour Party in January's general election.

The two militia leaders were killed late Tuesday in the refugee camp. Ala Sabbagh of the Al Aqsa militia and Imad Nasharti of Hamas were in a room in a house under construction when they were killed. At the time, Israeli helicopter gunships and several armoured vehicles were in the area, witnesses said.

At one point, a loud explosion was heard, and rescue workers initially said the two militia leaders were killed by an Israeli missile fired from a helicopter, but Fatah officials later backed away from that claim.

At funerals for the two militants, the militias vowed to avenge the killings, promising to target Israeli cities, among them Afula, Haifa and Tel Aviv.

Israeli security officials said Israel was not involved in the deaths.

The office of Mr Arafat's deputy in the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas, released a 20 page transcript of a closed-door meeting he held with Fatah activists last month in Gaza. In the session, Abbas sharply criticised the militias, saying it was a mistake to turn popular protests into an armed conflict with Israel.