Islamic Militants Defy Arafat’s Truce Order

JERUSALEM —  Ignoring Yasser Arafat’s truce order, two members of the militant Islamic Jihad group on Friday attacked an Israeli army patrol in the Gaza Strip in a failed suicide mission. Troops killed one assailant and found remnants of an explosives belt near his body.

Also Friday, Israel lifted a blockade of Bethlehem, the second West Bank town where travel restrictions were eased last week in response to a recent drop in violence. Palestinian attacks on Israelis have decreased sharply since Dec. 16, when Arafat called for an end to attacks against Israelis.

However, Israel’s army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, on Friday dismissed Arafat’s crackdown on militants, saying the Palestinian Authority itself is “infected by terror from head to toe and does everything to disrupt our lives, and to bring terrorism to our doorsteps.”

The Palestinian Cabinet demanded after its weekly session Friday that the United States send its special mediator, retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, back to the region as soon as possible to oversee confidence-building measures that would lead to an eventual resumption of peace talks.

Friday’s predawn attack took place along a road near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the central Gaza Strip, said the Israeli commander in the area, Lt. Col. Erez Katz.

Two assailants carrying two anti-tank missiles, a Kalashnikov assault rifle and ammunition fired on Israeli soldiers on patrol in the area, Katz said. Troops returned massive fire. At daybreak, soldiers found the decapitated body of one of the attackers and remnants of an explosives belt, Katz said.

The second attacker fled the scene, the officer said.