- GAZA CITY (AFP) -
The radical Palestinian movement Hamas lashed out at the Palestinian Authority's
(PA) decision to imprison the suspected killers of an Israeli minister
under a US-brokered plan that would lift Israel's month-long siege of Yasser
Arafat.
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- The five, members of the militant Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), are wanted for the assassination last October
of Israel's tourism minister Rehevam Zeevi.
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- "The PA accepted the proposal (of US President George
W.) Bush to place Palestinian militants accused for the murder of a Zionist
official in a prison under US and British guard", a Hamas communique
said.
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- "We, Hamas, refuse and denounce this measure that
constitutes a new submission to American and Zionist demands and conditions",
it said.
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- Hamas made no mention of Fuad Shubaki, an advisor to
Arafat implicated in an arms-running scandal, who is also to be imprisoned
as part of the deal.
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- On Sunday, both Israel and the PA accepted a US plan
to lift the siege on Arafat in return for the six Palestinians' imprisonment
in a West Bank jail under US and British guard.
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- The PA decision "is a blow against Palestinian national
unity and the sovereignty of the Palestinian people in their land",
Hamas said.
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- The radical group also denounced the "concentration
of all efforts on the question of raising the siege on Arafat."
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- "All of the Palestinian people is suffering because
of the tight blockade, not just Mr. Arafat".
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