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Settler Killed After Palestinian Child Found Dead
BETHLEHEM, March 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Israeli army re-imposed a blockade on Bethlehem after the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for killing a Jewish settler near Bethlehem in the West Bank on Monday.
An anonymous caller told news agencies that the attack was carried out by the PLFP's Brigades of the Martyr Guevara Gaza; claiming responsibility for an anti-Israeli attack for the first time since the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, broke out last September protesting Israeli encroachment on Islamic holy sites.
The shooting comes only two days after the bludgeoned and bruised body of a 10-year-old Palestinian child was found in a bush near the Jewish settlement of Navi Ya'ccouba near East Jerusalem on Saturday.
The family of the boy has accused Israeli settlers of murdering the child, assumed to have been stoned to death near the settlement.
Baruch Cohen, 59, a Jewish settler was killed in a drive-by in a recent eruption of anti-Israeli resistance activities. Cohen was shot several times near the Neve Daniel settlement, southwest of Bethlehem, and lost control of his car that crashed into a truck, the army said.
"Guevara Gaza" is the a nickname of the "martyr Mohammed al-Aswad," a leading PFLP figure active in the 1970s, in reference to Cuba's Che Guevara, Palestinian sources said.
The Damascus-based PFLP, a splinter faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), headed by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, rejects the idea of a peace process with Israel.
In the Arab village of al-Khader near Neve Daniel, the Israeli army was reportedly searching homes and questioning residents,
residents said.
"Apparently the attackers fled towards Bethlehem through the southern entrance of the town that had been reopened on Sunday, without the intervention of the Palestinian police who control two roadblocks there," said Benny Gantz, commander of Israeli forces in the West Bank.
Ganz said the Palestinian Authority is aware of other Palestinians planning resistance attacks, but does not take appropriate security measures in preventing such attacls.
In response to the murder of Cohen, the main settlers' organization in the West Bank and Gaza urged Sharon to re-impose a total embargo on Palestinian territories, which had been hardly eased last week.
"The blockade demonstrated its effectiveness in that when it was in place, the number of terrorist attacks diminished," a statement said.
The attack coincided with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's first visit to the United States since he took office less than two weeks ago.
Sharon, who will meet U.S. president George W. Bush at the White House on Tuesday, said Sunday he had ordered security meetings with the Palestinians "aimed at operations to reduce the violence where possible."
Nevertheless, he said that any discussions of political settlement would never take place "as long as there are murders and attacks."
In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and shock grenades to scatter some 600 women demonstrators trying to break though a checkpoint imposing a closure of the West Bank, witnesses said.
Among the demonstrators was Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi who told reporters, "This is Israeli courage, attacking woman. This is occupation in its real picture, force against captive people."
Carrying Palestinian flags and shouting slogans denouncing the closure, in place for nearly half a year, the woman marched on the Ar-Ram checkpoint heading towards Jerusalem.
"Lift the closure! No peace with [Jewish] settlements," the women shouted. "End the occupation, Settlers out!"
The dead child found near the Navi Ya'ccouba settlement, Muhammed Ismael Nassar, disappeared Friday afternoon.
"I don't have the slightest doubt that they [the settlers] did it, who else would commit a gruesome crime as such?" said the boy's uncle, Amin Nassar.
The PFLP, founded in December 1967 by George Habash is Marxist in orientation and was backed by Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser. Its leader, Habash views the "liberation" of Palestine as an integral part of the world Communist revolution.
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