JERUSALEM (May 3) - Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's recent call to end mortar attacks on Israeli communities in and around the Gaza Strip is being ignored on the ground, senior Hamas spokesman Ismail Abu Shanab said yesterday.

He told Jerusalem Post Radio that Arafat's order cannot be implemented when Israelis are attacking Palestinians in the territories.

"When Arafat decides, he decides according to the international pressure and he gives orders. But on the ground, he cannot give the Palestinians security," he said. "The real situation turns out to be a Palestinian people facing Israeli military and Arafat is out of the picture."

Abu Shanab said on Tuesday Arafat told Palestinians he cannot ask them to stop the intifada when they are burying their martyrs each day.

Rejecting any new diplomatic moves such as the Egyptian-Jordan peace initiative, he said: "The Israelis should understand that their existence is the only provocation in the area."

Abu Shanab said the ongoing diplomacy turns back the clock to before the breakout of the current intifada, which is unacceptable to many Palestinians. "The initiative is not fulfilling the Palestinians' ambition of getting rid of the occupation and having freedom and independence day."

Dismissing the possibility of adhering to any future cease-fire agreement, Abu Shanab said Hamas did not stop its resistance when Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo Accords in 1993.

"Arafat got a chance, seven years, to stop Israeli occupation. He, at the end, failed to convince the Israelis to withdraw," he said. "Now Palestinians have got to the point that they do not trust any agreement and they trust only their own initiative of resisting the occupation."

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