Arafat casts doubt on date of Palestinian ballot

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat cast doubt yesterday over the date of future Palestinian elections, saying a ballot could be held only after the end of Israeli occupation.

It was not immediately clear whether he was referring to a complete end to Israel`s decades-old occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Arafat raised the possibility of new elections - last held in 1996 - earlier this week and Palestinian officials said they could take place by next year.

A Palestinian official, asked to clarify Arafat`s remarks, said the condition for holding elections was the Israeli army`s withdrawal from all positions it had occupied since the start of a Palestinian uprising 19 months ago.

Arafat`s condition met with a muted response from some Palestinians who have urged new elections and reforms within the Palestinian Authority, even though the linkage to an Israeli withdrawal could amount to a significant delay for a vote.

Keeping up the pressure, Israeli forces pushed into the battle-scarred Jenin refugee camp yesterday, returning to the scene of the fiercest fighting in Israel`s recent West Bank offensive, and a second camp near Nablus.

Palestinian sources said two Palestinian boys were killed in the raids.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Arafat was asked by a reporter: "When do you think there will be free elections for Palestinians?" Arafat replied in English: "As soon as we will finish this occupation (of) our land."

It was not clear whether he was backtracking from a pledge he made on Wednesday that new elections would be held as part of reforms in his Palestinian Authority which Israel, the United States and many of his own people have demanded.

Palestinian cabinet minister Nabil Shaath later told Reuters "the president meant (no elections) until Israel pulls out its occupation forces to where they had been before September 29, 2000" - the date the current uprising erupted.

A committee of Palestinian lawmakers urged Arafat on Thursday to authorise local, general and presidential elections by early next year and slim down his government in the interim.

Committee member Hanan Ashrawi said Arafat was drawing international attention to Israel`s chokehold on Palestinian territories where army checkpoints block free travel.

Palestinian legislators "set a timeframe for the elections in the declaration we are working on but we need the proper conditions which require an Israeli withdrawal," she said.

Israeli forces have encircled Palestinian cities in the West Bank and set up checkpoints across Palestinian territories which they say are meant to prevent attacks on Israelis. But Palestinians have branded it collective punishment.

Israel has said peace talks could not begin until Palestinian violence ceased and Arafat`s government was overhauled.

In the Gaza Strip, soldiers shot dead an armed Palestinian who approached the Jewish settlement of Dugit and threw grenades at troops, the Israeli army said. A group linked to Arafat`s Fatah faction identified the man as a member.

An Israeli Arab woman was killed by troops near the West Bank city of Tulkarm. The army said soldiers fired warning shots at her car as it sped toward the checkpoint they control.

In the Jenin camp, smoke rose from several buildings during a pre-dawn assault that ended after several hours. Troops also operated in parts of the town of Jenin.

Palestinian sources said Israeli gunfire killed a 16-year-old boy before the troops pulled out. The army said at least 24 suspected militants were arrested in the area.

Israeli troop carriers also rolled into the Askar refugee camp near Nablus in a brief raid during which a seven-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by Israeli fire on his way to Friday Muslim prayers with his father, medics and witnesses said.

The army said it was checking the report. Arafat told reporters the Jenin assault showed Israel`s "military plan of escalation against the Palestinian people".

Gideon Meir, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Israel launched the assault after receiving "intelligence information about suspects who are involved in terrorism who went back into the refugee camp after the Israelis pulled out".

Human rights groups said Israel may have committed war crimes in last month`s operation in the camp, a militant stronghold, but Israeli officials have denied this. Bulldozers levelled homes, and troops and gunmen fought house to house.

The founder of Hamas said his movement would continue suicide attacks which have killed scores of Israelis as long as the army continued its incursions into Palestinian areas.

"All our attacks will go on. You cannot talk about ceasing attacks while your enemy is pursuing its incursions and its killings of (Palestinian) civilians everywhere," Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told Reuters in an interview.

Israeli troops reoccupied Palestinian-ruled towns in the West Bank last month in an offensive the government said was aimed at rooting out suicide bombers. The army has pulled out of the towns but continues to encircle them and stage ad hoc raids.

At least 1,356 Palestinians and 474 Israelis have died in the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation which began shortly after peace talks on a Palestinian state foundered.