Just hours after Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's address Sunday night calling for an end to all terrorist activities, a mortar shell was fired at an Israeli settlement in Gush Katif. Shooting incidents occurred overnight as the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Tanzim vowed to continue the armed struggle.

An explosive device detonated near an Israeli tank on Mount Bracha, near Nablus. Palestinians opened fire on an IDF patrol near the Alon Moreh junction, at an IDF position near Shilo and at the el-Khader roadblock. There were no injuries in any of the incidents.

Sunday had been a relatively violence-free day. "When Arafat wants to control the situation he can control it," said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman Ra'anan Gissin, adding, "when [Arafat] wants to take action he can take action."

Sharon refused to relate to Arafat's speech, but Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres said that Israel should "judge Arafat by what is being done and not by what is being said." Peres said Israel should give Arafat a few more days to show that he was serious about arresting terrorists.

Arafat's call for an end to suicide bombings and mortar attacks, which he said would only provide Sharon with an excuse for attacking Palestinian targets, did not go far enough, Israeli military analysts said. Arafat did not single out the Hamas and Islamic Jihad by name, and also was vague enough in his words to allow Palestinian militants to believe that he wouldn't frown upon attacks against settlers and soldiers.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists in the organizations said that they would continue attacks against Israel. Militants interviewed by the Al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi television stations said that the organizations would not heed Arafat's order to end suicide bombings. Statements released in the West Bank and Gaza Strip called upon Palestinians to continue the armed resistance to Israeli occupation.

Among members of the Fatah, the organization headed by Arafat himself, there was also determination to continue the armed struggle. "Sharon has shown no sign that he plans to end his aggressiveness against the Palestinians, so the struggle against the settlers will continue," Tanzim sources told ynet.

Arafat insisted that the Palestinian Authority would "punish all planners and executors" of actions that would disrupt the cease-fire. But he stopped short of calling for the collection of illegal weapons and has yet to arrest the majority of the "most wanted" suspected terrorists.

"Arafat went as far as he could in the speech"
"Arafat went as far as he could go in the speech. We believe it will get positive responses from the Americans and the Europeans," a Palestinian official told The Jerusalem Post. Analysts said that Arafat's words were phrased to ease international pressure. According to media reports, the text of Arafat's speech was submitted in advance to U.S. officials for their comments.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ari Fleischer called Arafat's words "constructive," but added, "What is important is that they be followed up by concrete actions." U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Arafat to take stronger steps against the Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The Palestinians "have not arrested many names on [the list of wanted terrorists] and very often those they do arrest are seen to be free again in just a few days' time," he said.

But, even though Arafat issued a call for an end to violence, he did not declare an end to the Intifada, as the Europeans had requested. Even so, spokesmen for the European Union said Arafat's speech appeared to open a new window of opportunity for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Arafat could not have spoken any stronger about ending the armed struggle," said Ehud Yaari, Channel Two television's Arab affairs correspondent. Media analysts suggested that Arafat refrained from declaring an end to the Intifada, as he had no political gains he could show the Palestinian people in return for an end to the uprising. A declaration ending the Intifada would have risked launching a Palestinian civil war, analysts said.

Israeli security officials were skeptical of Arafat's declarations, but didn't rule out that they could lead to a period of relative quiet in the territories. Even so, officials told Maariv that "eventually the terror attacks and violence will resume" because Arafat "had not made a strategic decision to end the conflict."

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