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Palestinian Intelligence Officer Slain
GAZA CITY, Sept 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Palestinian intelligence officer Tayssir Khattab died of wounds sustained Saturday morning in Gaza City in an assassination attempt by Israeli occupation forces, Palestinian security and hospital sources said.
Khattab's car blew up as he was driving to his Gaza City office, the same sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A high-ranking Israeli source later denied "any involvement" in Khattab's death, and suggested to AFP he may have been slain by Palestinian hardliners who oppose an end to the 11 months of violence, but a BBC correspondent in Jerusalem, Simon Ingram, says it bears the hallmarks of a number of previous killings targeting Palestinian officials, the BBC's Online news service reported.
But late Saturday, an unknown Palestinian organization calling itself the "Bilal al-Ghul martyr" group claimed responsibility for the explosion, which also seriously wounded Khattab's bodyguard and injured three civilians.
In a statement to AFP, the group accused Khattab of having "served the Zionist enemy for many years" by arresting Palestinian fighters.
The group's existence has not been confirmed.
The explosion came amid Western efforts to rekindle a dialogue between the Israelis and Palestinians, following Israel's withdrawal Thursday from the West Bank town of Beit Jala.
But just a day after Israel ended that incursion, the Israeli occupation army reportedly entered two Palestinian areas of the divided West Bank city of Hebron.
Witnesses said Khattab, who would have celebrated his 44th birthday Saturday, was driving to his office in the north of Gaza City when his car exploded and split in two.
He died soon after arriving in Gaza City's Shifa Hospital in critical condition.
"I saw Khattab passing by and then a minute later, I heard a big explosion and I saw fire coming from the car," a Palestinian grocery store owner, Ziad Sharkh, said.
"Part of a human body was on the side of the street and there was blood everywhere," he said.
Palestinian security officials said a bomb was planted in Khattab's car.
Also late Saturday, a taxi exploded on a road linking Tulkarem and the city of Nablus, both in the West Bank, killing a Palestinian woman and wounding four other people, Palestinian hospital sources said.
Palestinian security sources identified the woman as Abir Abu Salha, 22.
Their deaths brought to 761 the number of people killed since the start of the Palestinian uprising last September when peace negotiations broke down, including 583 Palestinians and 156 Israelis.
Palestinian and Israeli officials had earlier exchanged accusations over Khattab's death, which cast a shadow over the anticipated truce talks between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"Israeli occupation forces carried out an ugly crime today, an assassination against Lieutenant-Colonel Tayssir Khattab, by putting a bomb in his car," a Palestinian intelligence spokesman told AFP.
Speaking to AFP from the U.N. Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa, Palestinian president Yasser Arafat's top aide, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said, "We hold Israel responsible for this assassination and this new escalation."
"We warn Israel that if it continues its attacks and crimes, it will lead the whole region into an explosive situation," Abu Rudeina added.
Khattab returned from Tunisia in 1994, one year after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Khattab's assassination set a tense stage for a proposed meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.
Khattab belonged to the Palestinian intelligence services headed by Amin al-Hindi.
A senior Israeli political source said Israel had no desire to kill Khattab since he was a "supporter" of an end to the Middle East violence.
"Those who committed this crime wanted to annihilate any possibility of Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation in the future," he told AFP.
Some 2,000 Palestinians, including many members of the security services, attended Khattab's funeral Saturday afternoon in the south of Gaza City.
However, the flags of the various Palestinian movements, generally numerous on such occasions, were notably scarce.
Bilal al-Ghul, an 18-year-old member of the Popular Resistance Committee, was killed in an Israeli helicopter attack near Gaza City on August 22 that was aimed at his father, a senior bomb-maker for the resistance movement Hamas.
Last Monday, Israel assassinated Abu Ali Mustafa, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
It was the highest-level killing since the Palestinian Intifada (uprising) erupted 11 months ago, and the first of a major political leader.
Israel describes its assassinations as "targeted military actions", and justifies them by claiming that the individuals concerned were allegedly involved in "planning attacks on Israelis".
The Palestinians say that more than 60 people have been killed in such assassination attempts, which have targeted mainly resistance activists and intelligence officers.
On Friday, at least ten Palestinians were wounded in violent clashes with Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, a day after three Palestinians and an Israeli were killed.
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