Hizbollah guerrillas are trying to recruit Palestinian militants for attacks on Israelis in order to sabotage Middle East peace efforts, senior Palestinian officials said on Wednesday. The accusations, a day after Israel and the Palestinians announced a cease-fire, echoed charges from the Jewish state. The officials declined to be identified.Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, said in a statement no such contacts had taken place, and a senior Palestinian security adviser said he had received assurances that Hizbollah would abide by the truce.
A top Palestinian official said security services were investigating Hizbollah funding for militants in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Another said links were spotted via intercepted communications. "We know that Hizbollah has been trying to recruit suicide bombers in the name of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to wage attacks that would sabotage the truce," an official said about an armed group of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction.
Another official said intercepted e-mail communications and bank transactions suggested Hizbollah had raised its cash offers to militants, but it was unclear if this reflected a heightened desire to see violence flare up or a dearth of recruits. "Now they are willing to pay $100,000 for a whole operation (suicide bombing) whereas in the past they paid $20,000, then raised it to $50,000," the second official told Reuters.
Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced a cease-fire at a summit in Egypt on Tuesday to end four years of bloodshed and prepare the ground for peacemaking. Militants have said they are not bound by the truce, but will maintain a recent calm at the request of Abbas.
Israel has long accused Hizbollah, whose attacks helped end its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in 2000, of bankrolling a Palestinian revolt that erupted later that year. Hizbollah has acknowledged some support for Palestinian militant groups. Palestinian officials blamed a recent attack in the West Bank city of Nablus on the guerrilla group. Officials accused Hizbollah of sending money to the West Bank and Gaza via relatives among the 400,000-strong Palestinian refugee community in Lebanon.
Many refugees who fled the 1948 war of Israel's creation fear that Abbas will abandon demands for a "right to return" to lands inside Israel, though he has said he would not.
Senior Palestinian security adviser Jibril al-Rajoub said Lebanese officials had told him during talks in Beirut that Hizbollah would not sabotage efforts at calm. "Hizbollah will respect the decision of the leadership of the Palestinian people of their commitment to the cease-fire."
Representatives of al-Aqsa Brigades, a disparate coalition of gunmen, denied getting help from the Shi'ite guerrillas. "We respect Hizbollah but Palestinian resistance is capable of leading its struggle alone and is able to support itself by itself," said Abu Qusai, Gaza spokesman for the faction.
A Lebanese-born Palestinian with Danish citizenship awaits trial in Tel Aviv, accused of spying and trying to recruit Israeli Arabs for Hizbollah missions. He denies the charges.