IDF: Hamas making Qassams under cover of truce

By Uzi Benziman, Haaretz Correspondent Haaretz 7 July 2003
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/315414.html

Hamas may have totally ceased its terror attacks but it continues to
manufacture Qassam rockets under cover of the cease-fire, senior
intelligence officials revealed Sunday.

So far, however, this isn't changing the Israel Defense Forces's belief
that the government of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas,
particularly Security Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan, should be given a
chance to dismantle the extremist groups' military infrastructure.

A week into the cease-fire, the IDF believes all the armed groups have now
accepted it, and are honoring it by not plotting any new attacks. As a
result, the army has not initiated military operations against the armed
groups, even in areas that have not yet been turned over to the Palestinian
Authority.

The IDF is only acting against marginal Palestinian groups that have yet to
join the hudna, a few dozen armed men in total.

Since Palestinian police have been responsible for security in Bethlehem,
there has been an absolute end to violence there, not even stone-throwing
incidents.

But the picture is more complicated in the Gaza Strip. There is still
hostile activity against Israeli targets by armed groups that the
Palestinian Authority has yet to subdue. These attacks are explained, in
part, by the haggling underway between the groups' leaders and the PA.