Did Israel threaten the truce?

All day long the wire services have been publishing reports of the Israelis killing a Palestinian and threatening the truce. Here is an article from the Jerusalem Post that tells the whole story.

During a combined operation conducted by IDF, Border Police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) forces to arrest Tanzim fugitive, Ibrahim Mohammed Hashash, 23, he opened fire at the troops and was shot dead, Thursday afternoon. A border policeman who was hit by the bullet was unharmed after it hit the ceramic flak jacket he wore.

The soldiers tried to stop the fugitive, Hashash, who planned to launch a suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem and was involved in numerous other attacks against Israelis, but they were compelled to fire at him after he fired shots towards them in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus.

According to security officials Hashash received instructions from Hizbullah agents in Lebanon. In the past he was a member of Yasser Arafat's elite Force 17 and in 2003 was recruited to the Islamic Jihad in Nablus by Mohand Abu Ayash, 25, who was arrested by security forces several months ago.

In March 2004, Hashash recruited Fadi Abdullah Hizran, 26 to carry out a suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem. However prior to launching the attack Hizran was arrested and disclosed to security officials the whereabouts of the explosives belt. The same month, a second attempt by Hashash to launch a suicide bomb attack in Israel in which he planned to dispatch the suicide bomber via Taibe was also thwarted.

Hashash was later ousted from the Islamic Jihad after he attempted to recruit Tamer Hawira, at the time a minor, to carry out a suicide bomb attack on the movement's behalf.

The four-way summit in Sharm E Sheikh in February this year did not stop Hashash from continuing his efforts to launch attacks. The same month, he recruited cell members in Azoun and gave them funds in order to purchase weapons to use in shooting attacks on the trans Samaria highway. Later the same month the cell members shot at an Israeli vehicle traveling on the highway, bullets hit the car but no one was wounded in the attack. The cell members were later arrested by security forces and revealed that Hashash was in the midst of planning a suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem. Shortly after, security forces arrested Samah Kra'in, 23 who had been recruited by Hashash to lead the suicide bomber to the site.

Hezbollah's role in this case is a worrying sign, and further proof that they must be disarmed.