Gaza Strip Yasser Arafat closed six Hamas offices in a crackdown on militant groups Tuesday amid opposition over his call to end attacks against the Jewish state. Israel, meanwhile, rounded up 10 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
A new poll showed more than half the Palestinians opposed a halt to the fighting. On Monday, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Popular Front said that they would not abide by Arafat's cease-fire order.
Israeli leaders remained skeptical of Arafat's intentions. Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said attacks were continuing. "We are not seeing a real effort against the ... terror infrastructure," he said.
Israel's military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, said a string of bloody Palestinian attacks has led to "delegitimization of Arafat ... something that allows us today greater freedom of action."
Israeli forces arrested 10 Palestinians in two incidents in the Gaza Strip Tuesday, following sweeps earlier this week in the West Bank.
Arafat has said his security forces have detained 180 militants, but Israel charges that no leaders have been picked up.
Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan said Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority, headed by Arafat, would not tolerate independent action by the militants. "We will arrest anyone who violates Authority decisions," he told The Associated Press. "And we will prevent firing of mortar shells by force."
Mortar shells strike Jewish settlements and army outposts in Gaza almost daily, usually causing little danger, but prompting Israeli reprisals.
Late Tuesday, Palestinian police closed six Hamas offices in Gaza, part of Arafat's announced crackdown on the militant group that has claimed responsibility for many bomb attacks in Israel. The offices were centers for youth, political and social activities.
Arafat has been virtually trapped in his West Bank headquarters in the town of Ramallah since last week, when Israel responded to a bus attack that killed 10 by destroying his helicopters and tightening a cordon around Palestinian towns.
Secretary of State Colin Powell phoned Arafat Tuesday, said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an Arafat aide. He said Arafat appealed to Powell to press Israel to end its siege on Palestinian territories and stop killing suspected militants.
Powell told Arafat that he has taken some positive actions, but "those actions need to be completed" to stop violence, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Powell in a call that Arafat is still "giving the green light for terrorism," according to a statement from Sharon's office.
Sharon said in the call from Powell that in the 48 hours since Arafat's cease-fire call, there have been 31 terror attacks, including gunfire, mortar attacks and bombings, and four Israelis were hurt.
In a Sunday speech, Arafat called for an end to attacks against Israel, including suicide bomb attacks, referring to then as "terrorist activity" for the first time. He charged that Israel had declared war on the Palestinians and called for an end to attacks to deprive Israel of an excuse to keep up its offensive.
But a poll published Tuesday said a majority of the Palestinians responding favor suicide bombings against Israelis and oppose a truce.
The poll by the independent Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, showed that 57.6 percent of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza feel a "cease-fire is unjustified in the current circumstances." Only 34.9 percent felt a truce was justified, and 7.5 percent had no opinion. Also, 64 percent backed suicide bomb attacks.
The poll conducted Dec. 6-9, before Arafat's speech involved interviews with 1,201 Palestinians and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
A Hamas statement rejecting the cease-fire call said suicide bombings are "the only weapon to preserve Palestinian rights."