Islamic Resistance Movement Palestine

Two rockets fired by Palestinian militants struck southern Israel, the Israeli military said, violating an informal truce even as Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers appeared to hurry closer to a long-term cease-fire deal two days before Israeli elections. The Gaza Strip's strongman, Mahmoud Zahar, was in Syria, consulting with his Hamas bosses about the truce talks, while Israel's defense minister warned Israelis that they would have to pay a painful price as part of any deal. The flurry of activity came just two days before Israelis elect a new government expected to take a harder line in talks with the Palestinians.

He's been feted from Tehran to Khartoum. He's made virulently anti-Israeli statements and reportedly collected pledges worth millions of dollars for his militant Palestinian organization. Now, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder and charismatic spiritual leader of the Islamic group Hamas, is coming home to the Gaza Strip, his stature enhanced by a triumphal, four-month tour of the Middle East. And he is likely to pose new challenges both for Israel and for Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

The radical Islamic group Hamas said Saturday that it is weighing an invitation to join the government of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. Hamas, which bitterly opposes the peace accords between the Palestinians and Israel, has never before sought an official position in the Palestinian Authority. Representatives of Hamas were asked to meet Tuesday with Arafat to discuss participation in the next government, Hamas spokesman Mahmoud Zahar said in the Gaza Strip.

A government committee investigating a botched assassination attempt on a Hamas leader in the Jordanian capital criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to consider the political ramifications of the operation, the Haaretz newspaper said. Parts of the panel's 60-page report, which is to be submitted to Netanyahu today, were leaked to Israeli newspapers. Government spokesman Moshe Fogel refused to comment on the reports before the committee's findings are submitted.

Despite a Palestinian police roundup of leaders of the opposition Islamic movement Hamas, Israel remained on high alert Sunday, amid fears that the arrests have given the group's military wing new incentive to attack the Jewish state. "Hamas is in a struggle with the Palestinian Authority, and when they want to score against the Palestinian Authority, they hit Israel," said Ziad abu Amr, an independent member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and an expert on the Islamic opposition.

Palestinian officials arrested a leading militant in the death of a Hamas bomb maker Saturday even as thousands of Palestinians rallied against Israel, calling for revenge for the slaying of Mohiedin Sharif. Palestinian official Tayeb Abdel-Rahim confirmed the arrest of Hamas member Imad Awadallah in the death of bomb maker Sharif.

The master bomb maker for the militant wing of Hamas was killed by fellow members of the Islamic group in an internal power struggle, Palestinian officials declared Monday, exonerating Israel of involvement in his death. An investigating committee has identified the killer and some of the accomplices in the death of Mohiedin Sharif, said Nabil Shaath, a Palestinian Authority Cabinet minister and peace negotiator. "They are people inside Hamas.

Palestinian police detained the most prominent Hamas political leader in Gaza City on Thursday amid growing tensions between Yasser Arafat's government and his Islamic opposition over the recent killing of the chief Hamas bomb maker. Abdulaziz Rantisi's arrest appeared to be part of a Palestinian Authority crackdown on Hamas to try to prevent the group from carrying out its threats to avenge the death of the bomb maker with attacks on Israel and Jews around the world.

The spiritual leader of Hamas urged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's self-rule authority to stop cracking down on the militant Islamic movement and start standing up to Israel. In a rare interview with Israeli television, Sheik Ahmed Yassin decried Palestinian police for rounding up and jailing Hamas members to meet Israeli demands that Arafat take a tougher stance against Islamic extremists. "The Palestinian Authority is hounding the Hamas movement. . . .

As Israel and the Palestinians faced fresh challenges Sunday to their fragile new peace accord, Israelis marked the anniversary of the slaying of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin with appeals for unity and warnings that the political violence that claimed his life must never recur.