JERUSALEM (REUTERS) — The United States piled more pressure on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to rein in militants after another suicide bombing rocked Israel and a U.S. peace envoy grew impatient with a mission marred by violence.
“We’ve got to get a cease-fire. I think the burden right now is on Mr. Arafat to do more to get the violence down to zero,” Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters accompanying him on a trip to Russia Sunday.
Palestinian officials say Israeli bombardments and incursions into Palestinian territory are making the crackdown Arafat has promised more difficult.
Israeli and Palestinian sources said that U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni had shown signs of impatience during a meeting Sunday at a lack of progress toward a cease-fire.
A suicide bomber wounded eight people in the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Sunday. Police said they shot him dead as he tried to set off more explosives, as he lay wounded from the blast. In Lebanon, Hizbollah’s Al Manar television reported that the bomber was a member of Islamic Jihad.
Earlier, Israeli soldiers shot dead four Palestinian policemen in a raid on the West Bank village of Anabta that the mayor branded a killing in cold blood.
The Israeli army said it was searching for terrorists in Anabta and the policemen had opened fire at troops while trying to run a roadblock. The army said it arrested dozens of suspected militants and blew up two bomb factories.
U.S. IMPATIENCE
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney also voiced remarks that reflected Washington’s growing frustration over what it sees as Arafat’s failure to stem the tide of suicide bombings that have killed 29 people in Israel in the past 10 days.
Cheney told NBC television there was no question Arafat’s actions had set back the cause of Palestinian statehood.
“The fact of the matter is, until Arafat demonstrates that he’s serious about controlling suicide attackers from Palestinian territory against the Israelis, there’s not going to be any progress,” Cheney said.
At least 756 Palestinians and 223 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began in September last year after peace negotiations deadlocked.
Palestinian officials have said Arafat must show the Palestinian public some political gains if he is to carry out an unpopular move against militants. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has repeatedly refused to negotiate under fire.
A U.S.-hosted Israeli-Palestinian security meeting on Sunday ended with no sign of progress on stemming the bloodshed.
U.S. envoy Zinni, in the words of an Israeli source, said at the start of the two-hour session that he would consider ending his mission to achieve a cease-fire unless real progress on ending the violence was made within 48 hours.
A Palestinian security source said: “Zinni walked out of the meeting five minutes after it started, blaming both sides that they were not serious … (He) gave both sides 48 hours to come back with answers on how they will implement their commitments, and what steps they have taken.'”
Another source familiar with the proceedings acknowledged the retired Marine Corps general had “expressed some impatience,” but insisted talk of an ultimatum was exaggerated.
“The Israelis and Palestinians agreed to continue contacts on security,” the U.S. embassy said. “The United States plans to bring the two sides together in the next several days.”
MILITANTS CONSIDER TRUCE OFFER
In a signal to the Palestinians, the Israeli government held its weekly cabinet meeting at an unusual venue — military headquarters in the West Bank.
“We have not finished our operations. In light of what is happening, we may have to step up our activities,” Sharon said in broadcast remarks from the session.
Later on Sunday, Sharon met senior ministers and decided on military action to be taken in response to the Haifa suicide bombing, Israel Radio said. It gave no details.
Israel unleashed air strikes against Palestinian security installations and symbols of power last week after suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa on Dec. 1 and 2.
Islamic militant groups, after talks with the Palestinian Authority, said they were considering making an offer to halt attacks within Israel if the Israelis would give them an assurance to stop their strikes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
But a senior Israeli security official dismissed any such offer, saying Israel had no choice but to continue to “act in self-defense” as long as the Palestinian Authority failed to “fight terrorism and make arrests.”
Earlier, the military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Fatah’s al-Aqsa Brigades and another group in Arafat’s faction issued a statement saying they would stop attacks inside Israel for a week from Monday if Israel halted its strikes.
But a senior al-Aqsa source, who said he also spoke on behalf of Hamas’s military wing, said the statement had been issued prematurely by “politicians rather than gunmen” and no agreement had yet been reached among the militant groups.