OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, June 21, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon met in West Jerusalem on Tuesday, June 21, against a backdrop of massive Israeli arrests of Islamic Jihad members and a hunger strike by thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Just hours before the unprecedented summit at Sharon’s private residence, Israeli occupation troops rounded up 52 Islamic Jihad activists in the West Bank in the biggest sweep since the two men declared a truce, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Lieutenant colonel Erez Weiner, head of Israeli military operations in the West Bank, told AFP that more arrests would follow.

Immediately after the arrests, an Islamic Jihad spokesman urged Abbas to cancel the summit, while Hamas warned that “a declaration of an end to calm could be made at any moment”.

Abbas managed to convince Palestinian resistance factions in March into agreeing to a “period of calm” conditional on Israel ending its aggressions against them after an agreement with Sharon in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in February.

Since then, the quasi-truce has been put to the test several times in view of continued Israeli violations.

Last month Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz gave his army a free hand in dealing with what Israel terms “militants” – a reference to Palestinian resistance fighters.

Over the past three months, many Palestinians were killed and wounded by Israeli gunfire, drawing retaliatory mortar and rocket attacks from Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters on Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

Addressing Abbas before the summit, Palestinian women demanded the release of their jailed sons. (Reuters)

To bring their ordeal to the limelight, Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails went on hunger strike Tuesday.

The largest Palestinian detainees' rights group, the Prisoners Club, said practically all 8,000 Palestinian detainees were following the order to refuse food.

“This strike is intended to remind Abu Mazen (Abbas) of the prisoners' cause and ask him to insist on a clear timetable for their release,” said Issa Qaraqaeh, director of the Bethlehem-based Prisoners Club.

In pre-summit statements, Abbas vowed to give first and foremost priority to the prisoners issue, promising their relatives to try his best to release every Palestinian prisoner.

The issue is one of the most emotive in the Palestinian society.

Since the truce declaration, Israel has reluctantly released 900 prisoners, most of whom were about to complete their terms.

Abbas is pressing for the release of more detainees, including those with long terms.

The release of prisoners, the planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in mid-August and the implementation of the understandings reached in the Sharm El-Sheikh summit are high on the agenda of the Abbas-Sharon summit.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas would press Sharon for further Israeli troop pullbacks from West Bank cities.

Israel has already pull out from Ramallah and Jericho, turning over security control to the Palestinian Authority.

Abbas aides said he would seek Sharon's agreement for a free passage corridor between Gaza and the West Bank and an end to Israeli settlement expansion.

Sharon told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday, June 19, that he would not enter into talks on permanent peace deal with the Palestinians until Abbas disarmed and dismantled “militant” groups.

Abbas frequently said that he would not be dragged into a confrontation with the resistance factions, stressing that the Palestinians can settle their own differences through dialogue.

Critics and analysts expected little, if not nothing, from the Abbas-Sharon meeting.

“Without help, without cooperation from the Israeli side, without the Israeli side treating him as a partner, as a neighbor, I do not think (Abbas) can do anything,” Palestinian National Security Adviser Jibril Rajoub said.

Israeli commentator Akiva Eldar, writing in the daily Haaretz, said Sharon's response to Abbas's requests would be as terse as a cellular telephone text message.

"Most prominent will be a combination of two letters, 'N' and 'O'."

No joint news conference was scheduled, another sign of low expectations.

Hamas also questioned the significance of the summit.

“The meeting ... will do nothing to change the realities on the ground, for the agenda of the Zionist entity is limited to implementing its retreat from Gaza and mobilizing the efforts of all parties to this end, including the Palestinians," the movement said in a statement.

Hamas further criticized Abbas for accepting Sharon’s invitation to hold the summit in Jerusalem.