Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat announced he has set up a committee to probe whether a deadly kibbutz attack was a bid by an armed Fatah offshoot to sabotage talks between his faction and the Islamic resistance group Hamas. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- an armed offshoot of his Fatah group -- claimed responsibility in a statement for a shooting attack in the northern Israeli kibbutz of Metzer that killed five Israelis seven overnight.

"This operation comes at the same time as negotiations are taking place in Cairo," Arafat told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. "We are looking into this issue very seriously and a committee has been set up to see if there is a relation."
Arafat was talking to reporters before a meeting with the Palestinian central committee for elections.

The kibbutz attack came as a US envoy was starting a week-long tour of the region to promote a new roadmap for peace and as Arafat's Fatah was holding talks in Cairo with Hamas, in an apparent bid to persuade the resistance group to stop anti-Israeli resistance attacks.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said in the statement that the Metzer attack was "the continuation of our policy of resistance bombings and our struggle against Israel."

In a separate statement in Gaza City, the Palestinian leadership condemned the shooting spree at the Israeli communal farm and expressed its regrets for the civilian deaths.

"We are very sad for the Israeli civilians killed in this operation," the leadership said in a statement, reiterating its condemnation of "any attack against innocent civilians."

"We urge the Israeli people to do all it can to stop the occupation and the destruction of our land and people, because the Israeli aggression will not give them safety," the leadership also said.

PHOTO CAP;TION

Palestinian leader Yaser Arafat talks to the media outside his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah Saturday Nov. 9 , 2002. Arafat condenmend the killing of a senior member of the Palestinian Resistance Jihad group who was killed in an overnight Israeli occupation army operation in the West Bank town of Jenin Saturday.( AP Photo/Muhammed Muheise