Palestinian police arrested the leader of the militant Islamic Jihad and a Fateh activist in Gaza on Friday for violating Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's ceasefire orders, a Palestinian security official said.
"We arrested today Sheikh Ramadan Abdallah Shami for making a speech at a rally in which he called for violating the ceasefire. We also arrested a Fateh member for violating the ceasefire in Rafah," the senior security official told Reuters.
But family members of Shami denied he was arrested, telling AFP they had prevented Palestinian policemen from taking Shami.
The official said the Palestinian Authority had issued a "strongly-worded warning to (the militant Muslim) Hamas and vowed to take firm action against any group or persons violating the ceasefire or trying to tamper with the security situation."
Addressing a rally of some 4,000 Islamic Jihad supporters in Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza on Friday, Shami rejected the ceasefire brokered by CIA Director George Tenet as a conspiracy and called on Palestinians to continue the struggle against Israeli occupation. But the security official said the Palestinians would do what was necessary to see that the ceasefire was respected.
"We have placed policemen and security men in places of friction and places where we believe the mortar bombs are being fired from to prevent the violations. We are doing what we can," the official said - Albawaba.com
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