Palestinian pledge new crackdown on illegal arms

30 Oct, 2005

The Palestinian interior minister vowed on Saturday to crack down further on armed groups saying he would deal "firmly and seriously" with illegal weapons manufacturing workshops and storage sites.
Nasser Youssef issued a statement as Israel pursued a series of air strikes against rocket launch sites in northern Gaza that knocked out electricity to parts of the territory.
He condemned the Israeli raids and urged "an immediate international intervention" to stop them, but also called on militants to adhere to an eight-month truce.
"We will deal firmly and seriously with any foundry or workshop that manufactures weapons or explosives and also with any place used as storage for arms, something that poses a danger to our public," Youssef's statement said.
He stopped short of meeting Israel's demands to disarm militants, nor did he say what kind of action would be taken. But his statement went beyond previous Palestinian vows to confiscate guns carried in public.
"We will not enter Palestinian houses to search for arms, but we will not spare any effort to confiscate every weapon we find in the streets, because it would be a tool for chaos and crime," the statement said.

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