March 30, 2006
Suicide Bomber Kills 3 Israelis
Attack Day After Hamas Sworn-In; Fatah Offshoot Claims Responsibility
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An Israeli soldier uses his baton to control an activist during a protest in the northern West Bank village of Rafat, March 30, 2006, as Palestinians mark Land Day across the West Bank and in Arab Israeli towns. (AFP Photo)
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(CBS/AP)
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Photo Essay Historic Vote Palestinians vote in their first parliamentary election in a decade.
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Interactive Shaping Israel Israelis vote in an election labeled as a referendum on the country's future in the West Bank
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Interactive Mideast Conflict Events, key players and a history of the world's most unstable region.
Olmert has also pledged to take stiff action to halt Palestinian violence. After the bombing, Israeli soldiers blocked roads in the area of the settlement, and Israeli media reported contact with Palestinian security agencies was cut off.
Early Friday, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at an empty Hamas training camp in northern Gaza, breaking a water main, after a day of Israeli artillery barrages, airstrikes and navy cannon fire at the area, where Palestinian militants have been launching rockets at Israel. No casualties were reported on either side.
Olmert has said Israel will not talk to or deal with a Hamas government unless Hamas first recognizes Israel, accepts interim peace accords and renounces violence. Hamas has rejected the demands, and Said Siyam, now the Palestinian interior minister in charge of some of the security forces, has said he would not order the arrest of militants who attack Israel.
The new Palestinian ministers moved into their offices on Thursday and were immediately confronted with a burgeoning financial crisis, as Western donors threatened to cut off vital aid. The U.S., EU and Israel label Hamas a terror group and ban contact with its officials.
Hamas leaders said the aid cuts violate the Palestinians' democratic rights, but U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared, "The principle is very clear: We're not going to fund a Hamas-led government."
Up to now the Palestinian Authority has received a large part of its approximately $1.9 billion annual budget from overseas sources, and it may run into immediate difficulties next week when March salaries are to be paid for some 140,000 government employees.
New Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Thursday the aid cuts hurt the Palestinian people.
"We were hoping that some countries would respect the rules of the democratic game and that they would have had different positions and not act this way," he said.
The Quartet of Mideast mediators, the U.S., EU, Russia and the United Nations, warned the Hamas-led government Thursday to recognize Israel and seek peace talks if it wants to be guaranteed continued aid.
"The Quartet concurred that there inevitably will be an effect on direct assistance to that government and its ministries" if those conditions are not met, the mediators said in a statement.
Israel has already stopped transferring tens of millions of dollars a month in taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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