Israel hits breaks on road to peace after Hamas threats

Israeli Minister Silvan Shalom said yesterday that the diplomatic process with the Palestinians was on hold and that Israel saw the current security situation in Palestinian areas as "virtually intolerable."

The comments followed a threat by the militant Hamas group to punish Israel for raiding a bomb factory in a West Bank refugee camp on Friday. Two Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in the raid. A Palestinian stone thrower was killed by Israeli troops in a related incident.

In interviews on Army Radio and Israel Radio, Shalom accused the Palestinians of failing to disarm militant groups -- as required by the US-sponsored "road map" for Middle East peace -- and said Palestinian militants were exploiting a ceasefire to improve their military capabilities.

"The extremist groups have exploited this time to dig tunnels, smuggle weapons, train their forces, try to increase the range of their Qassam [rockets], move the missiles to the West Bank -- and of course all of these things are unacceptable from our point of view," Shalom told Israel Radio.

On Army Radio, he said "the current situation from our point is view is virtually intolerable."

The Palestinians had not fulfilled their responsibilities, he said, "so all of this now is on hold."

Violence raged for almost three years has fallen sharply since Palestinian militants declared a temporary ceasefire on June 29. But progress on the peace plan has stalled over who should make the next move.

Thousands Palestinians attended the funerals of the three men killed by the Israelis in the West Bank city of Nablus Saturday. Masked gunmen fired in the air, and mourners waving Hamas flags chanted slogans demanding revenge.

The Web site of Hamas' military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, called on militant cells to exact "a quick response to this crime to teach the enemy a deterrent lesson."

The group's leaders, however, stopped short of saying the incident would wreck the ceasefire. Since the truce was declared, 13 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed in violence between the sides.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Saturday that Hamas "promised it will not respond to the Israeli attacks."