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Israeli Troops Assassinate Fatah Activist
HEBRON, West Bank, Aug 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli soldiers killed an activist in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement Wednesday in another targeted assassination operation, Palestinians officials said.
Imad Abu Sneineh, 25, a member Fatah's armed wing, was shot dead near the Israeli-controlled zone in Hebron, witnesses said.
Palestinian minister for parliamentary affairs, Nabil Amr, condemned the latest hit by Israel - which has vowed to "liquidate" Palestinian activists suspected of participating in or planning attacks if the Palestinian Authority fails to arrest them first.
Amr said, "undercover Israeli occupation soldiers entered the Palestinian-controlled area in Hebron and ambushed [Abu Sneineh], fatally shooting him in the head, chest, abdomen and legs as he was leaving his home.
"Such state terrorism shall seriously impede the internationally sought efforts to bring calm to the region," he said in a statement, adding that Palestinians would increase efforts to secure international protection from the U.N. Security Council.
The Israeli daily, Ha'aretz, quoted security sources as saying Abu Sneineh had been involved in a wave of shooting attacks in the Hebron area.
Israel says it is acting in self-defense to ward off devastating bombings, such as the attack that killed 15 Israelis in a Jerusalem pizzeria last week.
But, this policy of "targeted killings" or "pre-emptive strikes" has earned worldwide condemnation, including from the U.S., Israel's closest ally, and human rights groups within and outside Israel itself.
The shooting brought to 719 the death toll since the start of the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, on September 28th. The majority of those killed are Palestinians, 551, with 146 Israelis killed.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces said Wednesday they had smashed a cell of the Palestinian occupation resistance group, Islamic Jihad, which they say had been planning to send more bombers into northern Israel.
Three people were arrested late last week in a maneuver in the West Bank, police officials said, adding that Arab Israelis had probably helped the group plot attacks around the port city of Haifa.
Israel has killed at least nine members of the resistance movement Hamas in the past month, four of them during a targeted assassination on July 31st that also cost the lives of two children and two Palestinian journalists.
Under an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, Israel evacuated 80% of Hebron in 1997, but it retained control over an enclave where some 400 Jewish settlers live among 120,000 Palestinians.
In Iraq on Wednesday, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis took to streets across the sanctions-ridden country to protest in support of the Palestinian Intifada.
Among the demonstrators were senior members of the ruling Baath party, waving banners praising the "resistance of the Palestinian people" and condemning the "schemes of the Zionist occupiers".
The demonstrations followed an appeal by President Saddam Hussein on Tuesday for all Iraqis capable of walking to join small protests organized by the Baath party across Iraq.
In the United States, however, President George W. Bush - taking a break from his Texas vacation to visit Colorado on Tuesday - reiterated a call for ending the violence, according to a CNN online report.
"Mr. Arafat must clamp down on the suicide bombers and on the violence, and the Israelis must show restraint," Bush said in the CNN report.
"It is essential that the violence stop," he added. "I feel very strongly about it, because I'm worried about the cycle of violence continuing to escalate."
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