|
Israel Assassinates Fatah Activist, Arrests Others
JERUSALEM, June 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A member of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction wanted by Israel's occupation force was assassinated while ten others were arrested by Israeli police Sunday.
Osama Jawabreh, 29, a member of Fatah, was killed when a public phone he was using in the West Bank city of Nablus exploded, news agencies reported.
Two Palestinian children, a brother and sister aged two and four, were wounded by shrapnel.
A Fatah official accused Israel of assassinating Jawabreh days after the Israeli occupation army was given the green light by the hawkish Israeli premiere Ariel Sharon to resume "pinpoint attacks" on resistance activists despite a ceasefire accord.
Palestinians say Israel has killed some 30 key activists since the beginning of a Palestinian uprising or Intifada against Israeli occupation in late September.
The Israeli army declined to comment on the incident.
A woman who lived on the street where the blast occurred said Jawabreh picked up the receiver and began to speak when it blew up. She said the explosion hurled him four meters (13 feet) away.
Ahmed Qorei, head of the Palestinian Legislative Council, told reporters in Ramallah that the blast was "an organized crime carried out by Israel" and said Jawabra's death "does not help to restore calm."
Palestinian cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdelrahman accused the ultra-rightist Sharon, who left Sunday for talks in the United States on the faltering truce accord with the Palestinians, of personally ordering the killing.
"Israeli security services that committed this crime were following Sharon's instructions," he said.
"Sharon doesn't want a ceasefire; he wants to continue aggressions against the Palestinians," added Abdelrahman.
Eight Palestinians and six Israelis have now been killed in the 11 days since a fragile U.S.-brokered truce took effect with the aim of ending nine months of fighting.
According to Western sources, almost 600 people have died in the violence, the vast majority Palestinians.
Sharon ordered a ceasefire in May but last week said the army again had a free hand to act in the face of continuing Palestinian resistance despite the June 13 truce mediated by U.S. intelligence chief George Tenet.
Meanwhile, the Israeli police arrested Sunday ten Palestinians wanted by Israel's so-called internal security services who were traveling on a bus from Jenin to Nablus in the West Bank, Israeli army radio said.
The radio said a police unit stopped a bus carrying 62 Palestinians who were trying to work in Israel without proper papers, and found ten of them were wanted by the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service.
Some of those arrested were members of Fatah, and the radio added two of them were wearing Jewish skullcaps, leading officials to believe they were Israelis.
Fatah or the Palestine Liberation Movement was founded by Arafat and a handful of close comrades in the late 1950s with the aim of resisting the occupation and liberating Palestinian territories that were usurped by Israeli occupation forces in 1948.
|
