Israel suspended ties with the Palestinian Authority on Thursday, vowing not to resume contacts until the Palestinians arrested those involved in an alleged plot to smuggle a shipload of arms, political sources said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made the announcement to political supporters at a meeting outside Tel Aviv and said ''security cooperation'' with the Palestinians would not be affected, the Israeli sources said.
Sharon's move -- a day after a deadly Palestinian raid in southern Israel and hours after the militant group Islamic Jihad said it would no longer adhere to a halt in attacks on Israelis -- further clouded US efforts to end more than 15 months of bloodshed.
Israel seized a ship laden with munitions in the Red Sea on January 3 that it said was bound for Palestinian areas on orders of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
Arafat has denied any involvement, and the Palestinian Authority has also rejected allegations linking it to the arms shipment, although US officials said there was compelling evidence against high-ranking Palestinian officials.
``The prime minister said that with the exception of security contacts there will be no contacts with the Palestinian Authority until the arrest of those responsible for the weapons ship episode,'' an Israeli political source said.
But Nabil Abu Rdainah, a senior aide to Arafat, dismissed the Israeli action as part of a ``destructive phase of Israeli policy'' and said relations had already ceased since US Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni left the region on Sunday.
It was the latest in a series of Israeli measures apparently aimed at discrediting Arafat and his Palestinian Authority in the eyes of the United States and the rest of the international community.
The Israeli cabinet declared the Palestinian Authority a ''terror-supporting entity'' on December 4 after a series of suicide bombings. It later cut off ties with Arafat and declared him ``irrelevant'' to efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
ISLAMIC JIHAD SCRAPS DEAL
Islamic Jihad said earlier on Thursday it was scrapping a deal with Arafat not to mount attacks in Israel, opening the way to fresh violence and dealing a blow to US peace efforts.
The group's military wing in the West Bank announced its decision after Israeli tanks and bulldozers demolished dozens of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an attack by the militant group Hamas which killed four Israeli soldiers.
Pressure also mounted on Arafat over Israel's seizure of what it said was 50 tons of mostly Iranian-supplied weapons destined for Palestinian-ruled areas of the Gaza strip.
One senior US official said there were strong suspicions that Arafat knew of the shipment, but Secretary of State Colin Powell said he had seen no evidence of the Palestinian president's involvement.
Palestinian officials dismissed the charge against Arafat but US President Bush said he was beginning to suspect the shipment was intended to ``promote terror.''
``And terror will never enable us to achieve peace in the Middle East,'' Bush told reporters. ``Mr. Arafat must renounce terror, must reject those who would disrupt the peace process through terror, and must work hard to get to the peace table.''
Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told CNN television the allegation against Arafat was ``absolutely unacceptable.''
THREAT TO PEACE MISSION
The arms seizure last week followed by the deadly Palestinian raid on an Israeli army post on Wednesday threatened to wreck Zinni's renewed peace mission.
He had hoped to capitalize on a three-week lull in violence, the longest since the start of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000.
But the mood has deteriorated since his departure.
In the latest blow to peace hopes, Islamic Jihad's military wing said it was abandoning its freeze on attacks inside the Jewish state, a move taken after Arafat's December 16 cease-fire call, because Israel was continuing to kill Palestinians.
Islamic Jihad issued a statement in Lebanon dismissing the earlier announcement, but there have often been differences between the movement's operational arms based in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and officials living in exile.
A senior Islamic Jihad official in the West Bank said the group would ``not necessarily'' resume attacks but said there was ''no justification to keep our hands tied behind our backs.''
Israel blames Arafat for the arms shipment and the Palestinian raid. The Palestinians were angered by Israel's demolition of dozens of homes in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza.
Weeping women and men and children searched for their belongings in piles of rubble, twisted metal, wood and broken furniture at Rafah after tanks and bulldozers raided the camp. before dawn. Witnesses said 110 families were left homeless.
Israel said the houses had been used for arms smuggling or to fire at Israeli soldiers, but a State Department official said the demolitions would not ``contribute to the restoration of calm and an end to violence.''
At least 803 Palestinians and 238 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began.
(China Daily January 11, 2002)
