Key militants reject Abbas' call to end armed attacks

Key Palestinian militant groups on Thursday rejected a call by moderate leader Mahmoud Abbas to end their armed fight against Israel, saying they were not bound by his authority and attacks would continue.

Members of Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group within Abbas' own Fatah movement, rebuffed the demand in a taped joint statement.

"Calls by some Palestinian persons to stop the armed uprising are totally rejected ... These statements are not binding on us," a masked gunman said on the video.

It also claimed joint responsibility for an attack on Wednesday on a Jewish settlement in Gaza.

"The blessed intifada will continue, both on its military and popular lines. No one, however senior or at whatever level - Palestinian, Arab or international - will be able to stop it," added the gunman, wearing an Islamic Jihad headband.

A top Islamic Jihad official, in a statement on the group's Web site, said it was not the right time to give up arms.

"Resistance factions have the right to keep their arms as long as occupation exists and as long as Zionist aggression continues on Palestinian land," Mohammad al-Hindi said.

The Islamic Jihad remarks echoed the stance of the largest militant faction, Hamas. It says its campaign is legitimate self-defense against Israel Defense Forces strikes and incursions in the West Bank and Gaza.

Hamas rejects claim use of weapons must endA Hamas spokesman dismissed remarks made by Abbas, who said Tuesday in an interview with the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat that the use of weapons in the four-year-long intifada was a mistake and should end.

Khaled Mashal, head of the Hamas politburo based in Damascus, said Hamas is not yet ready to accept a cease-fire with Israel. Mashal did say that a pan-Palestinian agreement for a cease-fire remains an option.

Abbas, who is expected to win the January 9 presidential elections in the Palestinian Authority, said Palestinians should resist the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza without resorting to violence.

It is important to "keep the uprising away from arms because the uprising is a legitimate right of the people to express their rejection of the occupation by popular and social means," he said. "Using the weapons was harmful and has got to stop.

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said that if the Palestinians work to quell the violence, Israel could coordinate its planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Banks settlements with the new Palestinian leadership, and that Israel would be ready to hand over West Bank cities now under Israeli control to the PA if it could guarantee law and order would prevail.

Abbas told the newspaper that Palestinian security is currently in a state of chaos. "Frankly, the Palestinian [security] apparatus needs discipline. There is security chaos, that's why were demanding and are seeking to unify the security apparatus," Abbas told Asharq al-Awsat.

	Mahmoud Abbas: Palestinians should resist the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza without resorting to violence. (AP)