Palestinians Give Voice to Contempt for Annapolis Talks

Hamas supporters rallied in Gaza against the U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian meeting a day after a similar protest by Israelis in Jerusalem. (By Khalil Hamra -- Associated Press)

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In a statement faxed to news agencies, the Popular Resistance Committees, an armed splinter group in Gaza, said Tuesday it would increase rocket attacks on Israel to protest the Annapolis meeting.

Israeli military officials said at least 10 mortar rounds had been fired into Israel in the past two days, although no injuries were reported.

Several hundred Palestinian demonstrators also assembled in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Hebron on Tuesday to denounce the Annapolis meeting. In Hebron, where Jewish settlements in the city center have been a source of political tension, Palestinian police fired on demonstrators, killing one Palestinian and wounding three others. The crowd of several hundred people in Ramallah, including some from Abbas's Fatah party, was dispersed quickly by Palestinian police using batons, tear gas and warning shots.

Israeli rejectionists, who fear losing Jewish settlements in the West Bank if a Palestinian state is created, have been more muted in their public criticism of the conference. Some analysts here say the reason is that Israeli settlers and their leaders believe the nascent peace process has only a slim chance of success.

Before the conference, Olmert and Abbas discussed in general terms the most complicated issues of the long conflict -- the Palestinian state's future borders; the right claimed by millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to homes inside Israel; and the status of Jerusalem, a city that both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital. They reported no tangible progress.

"We're telling the Israeli government to not raise its hand to divide Jerusalem or to raise its hand against the settlements in Judea and Samaria," said David Rotem, a lawmaker from the party Israel Is Our Home, which is part of Olmert's coalition government.

Rotem participated in the march to Olmert's residence, along with about 10,000 other mostly young Israelis who believe God promised the Jewish people the West Bank, which they refer to by the biblical terms Judea and Samaria.

"We did not build these settlements in vain," Rotem said. "And we will not allow the Israeli government, the minister of defense or the prime minister to freeze construction."

Special correspondents Samuel Sockol in Jerusalem and Islam Abdelkarim in Gaza contributed to this report.