Zakariye Zubeydi, his face pitted from the burns of homemade gunpowder, cradles the M-16 assault rifle of a slain Israeli soldier and promises to keep fighting, even if it brings down the truce between Palestinians and Israelis.

Palestinian militant leader Zakariye Zubeydi, shows a M-16 assault rifle he says he took of a slain Israeli soldier from last year's fight in Jenin refugee camp, background, Wednesday July 9, 2003.[Reuters]

For Zubeydi, whose mother was killed by Israeli troops, it's not just political — it's a personal settling of scores.

"We will continue our operations," he said in an interview. "For every action (by Israel) there must be a reaction."

Militants like Zubeydi are strong in northern parts of the West Bank, and the success of the truce declared June 30 may depend on whether he and dozens of others like him can be reined in.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to the cease-fire after militant groups — including Zubeydi's Fatah  movement — declared a temporary halt to attacks on Israelis. But Palestinian leaders find it hard to control young militants, and fear civil war if they crack down harshly.

"Who are they to tell us what to do, wearing their fancy suits in their air-conditioned offices," Zubeydi said of Palestinian leaders. He spoke sitting under a tree Wednesday in the Jenin refugee camp, where he lives.

Zubeydi said it was his faction of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades — an offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah — that first violated the truce, killing a Bulgarian laborer on July 1 after mistaking him for an Israeli.

Militants like Zubeydi say that in ignoring the truce they are carrying out the true will of the Palestinians — and also, they are convinced, of Arafat.

"We don't take our direction from Arafat's lips, we read his eyes," Zubeydi said.

He rejected the idea that in provoking Israel, he was prolonging the suffering of his people. Israel's occupation of the West Bank, he said, would never end without armed resistance.

The militants are generally well-known, and civilians seem friendly toward them. But opinion is divided over continued attacks.

"I feel with them and don't want them to die," said Ahmed Abu Shanab, a 45-year-old butcher in the Nablus area. "They can't fight Israeli tanks."

But Fahim Abu Atta said bitterness is strong toward Israelis. "When the Israelis entered the camp ... they destroyed everything," he said. "The army destroyed my store and I'm not an armed fighter .... This makes everyone think that they should carry arms and blow themselves up."

It is unclear whether the Palestinian Authority can impose its will on such militants; there already are signs of rebellion within the Palestinian security services. And there is practically no Palestinian police presence in Jenin.

Emissaries from Ramallah, the seat of Palestinian government, are occasionally sent to Nablus, Jenin and other towns to urge militants to keep the peace. Sometimes money is offered, the militants say, but they also get funds from Palestinians abroad.

The Israelis are in control of Jenin, but do not maintain a constant presence in the town or the adjacent refugee camp, instead keeping troops just outside.

Zubeydi was not afraid to speak openly or give his name, as if daring the Israelis to seek him out. "They wouldn't come in here," he said. "They know they'd have a tough fight."

However, militants generally do not sleep in the same place on consecutive nights for fear of possible Israeli helicopter strikes.

Al Aqsa is mostly known for shoot-and-run attacks against Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. Islamic Jihad and Hamas, the other main militant groups, are largely responsible for suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis.

An Israeli soldier scuffles with a member of the international solidarity movement during a demonstration to lift Israeli roadblocks in the West Bank city of Nablus July 10, 2003. Egyptian mediators on Thursday won the agreement of four Palestinian factions to stick to a shaky ceasefire rattled by Israel's refusal to release thousands of prisoners, officials in the groups said. [Reuters]

Israel has battered the Al Aqsa network in the West Bank over the past 33 months with mass arrests and targeted killings. Most of the current leaders are in their early 20s, with little experience or direction.

Zubeydi, 27, took control of the Jenin group last year after his predecessor was killed in an explosion. In nearby Balata refugee camp, Al Aqsa is led by a 22-year-old known as Abu Ahmed. His predecessor was arrested.

"How can you ask us to stop fighting when they arrest us, kill us and make us prisoners in our own city?" Zubeydi said.

Israel says it will not free members of Islamic Jihad or Hamas, or anyone who was involved in killing Israelis — a demand militant groups say is a condition for continuing the truce.

Zubeydi's story is not unusual.

Four years ago, Zubeydi and his mother were optimistic about peace, he said, even hosting an Israeli-Palestinian theater workshop in their home.

Their hopes were prompted by the 1990s interim peace agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization that created autonomous zones in the West Bank and Gaza. But talks on a final settlement collapsed, and violence erupted in September 2000.

Militant groups began gaining strength in the Jenin refugee camp, and Zubeydi joined the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

During an incursion in March 2002, Israeli troops shot and killed his mother, Samira, as she peered out her window. Zubeydi's brother, Taha, was killed in an Israeli invasion a month later. Israeli forces were in the camp in response to a series of deadly suicide bombings that originated there.

Zubeydi became a key local leader, organizing attacks against Israelis and fighting Israeli soldiers when they entered Jenin. He knows there is now a vicious cycle of attacks and counterattacks, and realizes older members of his group are dead or in prison.

But he said there is no way out unless the Israelis stop first.

"Let those with the power take the first step," he said.

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