Israeli offers hope for peace

JERUSALEM -- The appointment of Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas marks a "quiet revolution" in Palestinian leadership that could lead to an end of 31 months of violence, Israel's army chief said Wednesday, but three Palestinians, including a baby, were killed in separate incidents.

Abbas, meanwhile, flatly rejected a new Israeli condition for peace talks, outlining a confrontation that could delay or even scuttle implementation of a new international peace initiative.

In violence on Wednesday, Israeli army gunfire killed a 1-year- old Palestinian boy in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses and doctors said. Palestinians said the bullet hit the baby in the head while he was in his house.

Army spokesman Jacob Dalal said soldiers at an outpost guarding Israeli settlements had come under fire from Palestinians and returned fire. Dalal could not independently confirm the baby's death.

Later, another Palestinian was shot and killed in Gaza. The militant Islamic Hamas said Ahmed Gouda, 18, was on an "operation" in northern Gaza when he was shot dead, apparently by Israeli soldiers. The area is closed to Jewish settlements, targets of infiltration attempts. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

In the West Bank, a Hamas fugitive was killed in a mysterious explosion in a house in Zawata, a village near the city of Nablus. Hamas blamed Israel, but local firefighters said the blast went off inside the house, ruling out an Israeli missile attack.

After more than 2 1/2 years of violence, the Israeli army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, said the end might be in sight.

In an interview on Army Radio on Israel's Independence Day, Yaalon said that Abbas' appointment marked a "quiet revolution" in the Palestinian leadership, promoting leaders who oppose violence. Yaalon credited stiff Israeli measures against the militants for persuading many Palestinians to stop attacks.

"So there is definitely an opportunity to bring an end to this round of violence," Yaalon said.

Abbas, one of the first Palestinian leaders to speak out against the violent aspects of the Palestinian uprising, repeated his opposition to armed attacks during an interview shown on Palestine TV Tuesday night.

"We want to stop it," he said. "We need a calming period for our people to allow them to rebuild what was destroyed," he said, referring to punishing Israeli military strikes in the West Bank and Gaza that have followed Palestinian attacks.

But a new international push for Mideast peace was off to a rough start. Abbas turned down a condition set by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, that the Palestinians must renounce their claim that all refugees and their descendants -- about 4 million people -- have the right to return to homes they left behind in the war that followed Israel's creation.

Sharon said dropping the claim was a condition for moving ahead in peace talks.

The dispute is the latest of several to arise between the two sides and raised new doubts over the implementation of the "'road map" plan that international mediators unveiled just last Wednesday after Abbas was sworn in.

Drafted by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, the "road map" is a three-stage plan that envisions delaying talks on the toughest issues, including refugees, until the final phase.

Abbas has said he accepts the road map and it should be implemented in its current form. Israel has presented 15 objections.

In the TV interview, Abbas, a refugee himself, said he could not drop the "right of return" issue, a cornerstone of Palestinian policy for five decades. "The refugees issue is for the final status. Keep it there and we will discuss it," he said.

"Why would I drop the right of return for refugees?" he said. "It is not my right to drop it."

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