Four Palestinian militants and an Israeli settler were killed in a rash of violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Wednesday, puncturing the optimism that has greeted the election of a new Palestinian leader.
One settler and two members of the hardline Islamic Jihad organisation were killed in the attack on the isolated settlement of Morag in southern Gaza, one of 21 due to be dismantled later this year, while two other suspected militants were killed in a shoot-out near Ramallah in the central West Bank.
The violence represented the deadliest day since the moderate former prime minister Mahmud Abbas, an outspoken criticism of the armed uprising, was elected president of the Palestinian Authority by a landslide on Sunday.
Military sources said that the settler was killed and three soldiers were wounded when militants apparently managed to burrow their way into Morag through a tunnel and then detonate an explosive device by a jeep.
Jihad, which claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to AFP, said that both of its members who had taken part in the operation were killed.
The incident came several hours after the Israeli military said that it had killed two members of the main Islamic militant organisation Hamas at a shoot-out in the village of Qarawat Banizeid, north of Ramallah.
Palestinian sources said that the house belonged to a member of Hamas but added that the identities of the victims could be confirmed until the bodies had been recovered.
Abbas has been trying to persuade Hamas to call a halt to their campaign of anti-Israeli attacks, as well as condemning their frequent rocket attacks unleashed from its Gaza Strip stronghold.
Israel's head of military intelligence, General Aharon Zeevi, said Wednesday Abbas would be unable to fulfill demands to disarm the militants.
"Abu Mazen (Abbas) will not try to confiscate the illegally held weapons, he will not take on Hamas," Zeevi said in comments broadcast on public radio.
"Abu Mazen will try to convince Hamas and appeal to Palestinian public opinion to put pressure on the terrorists by explaining that this generation has suffered enough," added Zeevi.
Israeli officials have repeatedly demanded that the Palestinian leadership crack down on the likes of Hamas before it can be considered as a partner in the peace process.
Outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell also said that Abbas must crack down on the hardliners if he wants to retain the support of Washington.
"I believe he understands that he now has to take a strong position, an open, vocal, clear position against terrorism," Powell told Fox News.
"But more than just take a position, he has to fight against those forces within the Palestinian community that still think there is a role for terrorism."
The Palestinian cabinet meanwhile was holding its last meeting with its present line-up after the election of Abbas which is likely to lead to a cull of ministers.
Prime minister Ahmed Qorei, who has been asked by Abbas to stay on as the head of a new government, was presiding over the meeting in Ramallah.
The current cabinet is dominated by allies of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat but some key figures who were frozen out under the old regime are expected to enter the new line-up.
Among those seen entering the cabinet building Wednesday was Mohammed Dahlan, who served as security minister during a short-lived Abbas premiership in 2003.
Dahlan has been widely tipped to either re-enter the government or become deputy head of the national security council which is also led by Qorei. Nasser Yusef, whose appointment by Qorei as interior minister was vetoed by Arafat, is also expected to take up the position in the new cabinet.
On the Israeli front, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won approval on first reading from MPs for the 2005 state budget after putting together a new government which should implement the Gaza pullout.
Some 5,000 soldiers and policemen will take part in the uprooting of the 8,000 settlers in the summer, public radio reported.
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