The Israeli-Palestinian pact was signed June 27 at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Israel. According to this agreement, Tel Aviv’s forces were to pull out of northern Gaza June 30, and the West Bank town of Bethlehem soon after. In return, Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas agreed to prevent military attacks on Israeli forces from PA-patrolled territory. Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon pledged also to remove almost all internal checkpoints in Gaza and to halt assassination attacks against Palestinian leaders. Since the U.S.-brokered “peace” accord was formalized at the June 4-5 summit in Aqaba, Jordan, attended by Abbas, Sharon, and U.S. president George Bush, several Hamas officials have been assassinated in Israeli helicopter gunship attacks, which have killed dozens and injured more than 100 Palestinians. Tel Aviv will continue to station its troops in and around Zionist settlements in the Gaza Strip.

The U.S.-initiated plan, the so-called road map, calls for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 2005. Tel Aviv would be required to withdraw from parts of these territories in exchange for a PA crackdown on groups the U.S. rulers deem “terrorist” and political “reforms” by the Palestinian Authority that meet with Washington’s approval.

“The Palestinian security apparatus is ready to take on this huge responsibility” of patrolling Gaza, said Mohammed Dahlan, a top PA police official. Abbas had earlier stated he will not take military action against other Palestinian organizations. Israeli officials said on Israeli public radio that “if the Palestinians do not honor their commitments and stop anti-Israeli attacks…the Israeli army will feel free to act.”

The same day the Israeli-Palestinian truce was announced, Israeli forces carried out another assassination operation against Hamas, killing four Palestinians in central Gaza.

The formal announcement of a cease-fire called by Palestinian organizations was preceded by an earlier statement on Al Jazeera television by Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin. He said that his organization “has reached a decision to call a truce or suspension of fighting.” His statement was followed the next day by an announcement from Islamic Jihad leader Mohammed al-Hindi, who said, “We have accepted a conditional cease-fire for three months.”

Washington and Tel Aviv have made it clear, however, that their goal remains to do away with Hamas, not come to an agreement with it or other groups that often carry out suicide bombings or other such attacks on Israeli targets. White House spokesperson Ari Fleisher stated June 12 that “the issue is Hamas. The terrorists are Hamas.” In response to the expected PA-brokered truce, Israeli deputy prime minister Ehud Olmert said June 26 that there is a “Palestinian obligation under the road map to dismantle Hamas and Islamic Jihad, including imprisoning their leaders.”  
 
 
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