DAMASCUS, Syria, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad said Friday that it would not be dragged into a civil war with Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, which shut down the group's offices in the territories it controls.
"Palestinian blood is a red line, and if they shed our blood, we will be patient not because we fear them but for the eyes of Palestine," Ramadan Shallah, the group's secretary-general, said at a rally in a refugee camp near Damascus, Syria, held to mark the 34th anniversary of the launching of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Both groups are on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations.
Shallah said members of his group had been told "Palestinian weapons should be directed only against the Israeli weapon and chest of the Zionist occupiers."
Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority have been at loggerheads following a spate of suicide bombings in Israel that left dozens dead. International pressure on Arafat forced him to crack down on militant groups inside the Palestinian Authority.
Shallah accused Arafat of giving Israeli Prime Minister Ariel "Sharon an open check and cover for every new crime he commits against the Palestinian people."
He did not name Arafat but spoke of those who "bowed to the enemy, Israel, and the United States."
Maher al Taher, who represents the PFLP outside the occupied territories, said his group would never surrender, "whatever the sacrifices may be."
Earlier Friday, the militant Hamas group said it would suspend suicide bombings and other attacks on Israel.
