JERUSALEM - While political leaders and much of the leftist media talk optimistically of a Palestinian Arab ceasefire brokered by PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas, the Jews of Gaza and the western Negev remain under siege from terrorist rocket, mortar and shooting attacks.

Throughout the week, Jewish civilians and IDF soldiers in Gaza have been targeted in mortar, rocket, roadside bomb and shooting attacks, much as they have been since the start of the current “Palestinian” terrorist campaign four years ago.

During the predawn hours Wednesday, terrorists based in the Strip fired two Kassam rockets, one at a nearby town in the Negev region and another at a southern Gaza Jewish community.

Two large terrorists bombs were found by IDF troops in Gaza later in the day.

The continued aggression comes despite Abbas’s publicly declared intention to prevent attacks on Israeli Jews in the area for the time being, and his deployment of PA troops to achieve that aim.

Abbas ordered his forces not to arrest or open fire on any of the terrorists.

But the international and leftist Israeli media have largely ignored ongoing attacks and Abbas’s non-compliance with the Road Map in an effort to portray positively his attempts to reason with the terrorists.

Meanwhile, “the Palestinian terrorists continue doing what they know how to do:try to murder Jews,” Gaza resident Datia Yitzhaki told Arutz 7.

Abbas’s ceasefire “exists only in the media,” she said.

Yitzhaki warned that the Sharon government’s political gestures and easing of restrictions in response to Abbas’s efforts would only “enable [the terrorists] to better prepare for their next attack upon us.”

All of the Palestinian Authority’s signed agreements with Israel obligate it to disarm and dismantle the terror groups, by force if necessary. Abbas has publicly and repeatedly refused to honor that commitment. (Copyright 2002-2005 Jerusalem Newswire. 01/26/05)