
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 12, 1995                   TAG: 9504120046
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP                                 LENGTH: Medium

PLO WARNED IT'S `CROSSING THE RED LINE'

Yielding to U.S. and Israeli pressure, Yasser Arafat gave the go-ahead Tuesday for disarming his Muslim militant opponents despite fears it might unleash a civil war.

Arafat's security forces rounded up dozens more suspected militants, for a two-day total of 150 detentions. A new military tribunal sentenced Omar Shalah, a leader of the Islamic Jihad group, to life in prison for ``inciting civil strife.''

``I think we are entering a critical stage,'' Palestinian Justice Minister Freih Abu Medein said of the escalating confrontation between Arafat's government and the opposition.

The crackdown prompted cries of revenge from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two groups Arafat targeted after they carried out suicide bombings Sunday that killed seven Israelis and an American near Jewish settlements in PLO-ruled Gaza.

``The Palestinian authority is crossing the red line,'' warned Ibrahim Nasman, a Hamas official and administrator at Gaza City's Islamic University. ``There will be a spontaneous uprising against the Palestinian authority.''

Fatima Shalah, mother of the Islamic Jihad leader sentenced Tuesday, reacted angrily. ``After what Arafat did to my son, I am ready to kill him by blowing myself up next to him,'' she declared.

For his part, Arafat accused Israel of provoking Palestinian civil war by permitting weapons to be smuggled to Muslim militants in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

``Occupation has opened a market for the sale of arms in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,'' Arafat said Tuesday during a visit to Cairo, Egypt. ``Israel's aim from this is to light the fuse to a Palestinian civil war.''

The decision to disarm Hamas and Islamic Jihad came during an all-night meeting between Arafat and his security chiefs, said Abu Medein, the Palestinian justice minister.

``There is a decision to confiscate all illegal arms,'' Abu Medein said. He did not say how the guns would be seized. But a Palestinian source said there would be a grace period of several weeks during which weapons' owners could apply for a permit. After that, police will confiscate illegal arms, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hundreds of weapons are believed to be in private hands in Gaza. Some of the arms were left behind in previous wars involving the Turks, the British and Egyptians, while others were bought on the black market from Israeli criminals or found in stolen Israeli cars smuggled to Gaza.

by CNB