Arafat vows to control Gaza after Israeli pullout

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has pledged to assert control over the Gaza Strip after an Israeli pullout and fight militants who break the law, an Israeli newspaper reported yesterday.

Haaretz quoted Mr Arafat as saying in an interview earlier this week that he "definitely" understands that Israel must preserve its character as a Jewish state under any future peace deal.

The liberal daily said it was the first time Mr Arafat had made such a comment. But Mr Arafat declined to say how many Palestinian refugees should be allowed to return to what is now Israel in any future peace deal, it said.

Mr Arafat said his Palestinian Authority would control the Gaza Strip after an Israeli pullout, and noted that Palestinian police had been keeping the peace in Bethlehem since Israeli troops withdrew to the outskirts of the West Bank city last year.

Asked if he would not hesitate to fight against Hamas militants in Gaza if necessary, he said: "Even against anyone from Fatah who comes out against the law." Mr Arafat heads Fatah, the largest faction in the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Hamas is one of the main militant groups responsible for suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000. Israeli forces have retaliated by assassinating Hamas leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose cabinet has approved in principle his plan to "disengage" from the Palestinians, has accused Mr Arafat of fomenting violence in the Palestinian uprising. Mr Arafat denies the allegation.

Mr Arafat gave the interview on Tuesday at his battered headquarters in the Israeli-encircled West Bank town of Ramallah, where he has been holed up for about two years.

Egypt has offered to help revamp Palestinian security forces to fill a vacuum in Gaza, once Israel removes Jewish settlements from occupied land there, so that Islamist militants cannot operate unchecked in the territory on its eastern border.

Mr Sharon's plan envisages uprooting all 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of the 120 enclaves Israel established in the West Bank after capturing both areas in the 1967 Middle East war.

Under a compromise with cabinet hardliners, Mr Sharon put off until March 2005 a vote on the start of the evacuation, which he said he intends to complete by the end of next year.

Mr Sharon, who has said quitting hard-to-defend settlements would improve Israel's security, has also pledged to make Israel's hold on parts of the West Bank permanent.

Striking from Gaza, the Popular Resistance Committees, a coalition of militants, fired a rocket yesterday into Sderot, a town in southern Israel that has been the frequent target of such attacks.

The rocket slammed into the yard of a home, shattering windows and damaging a retaining wall, a military source and a witness said. One woman was treated for shock.