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Israel Assassinates Fatah Member
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| A child supporter of Ahmed Saadat holding his picture at a protest in Nablus |
NABLUS, Jan. 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies)- Israeli occupation troops shot dead a Palestinian activist from the resistance Fatah movement early Thursday on the outskirts of the West Bank City of Nablus, Palestinian security sources said, news agencies reported.
Palestinian medical sources identified the martyr as Khamis Ahmed Ali Abdullah, 42, from Askar camp. They added that a bullet to the chest killed Khamis but that no one else had been hurt in the incident in the early hours of Thursday, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Khamis was a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and an increasingly active player in the Intifada against Israeli occupation.
The group dropped its declared adherence to Arafat's month-long ceasefire call after the killing Monday of one of its local leaders, Raed al-Karmi, in an explosion widely seen as an Israeli army targeted assassination.
Moreover, Arafat's arrest of Ahmed Saadat, the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which assassinated an Israeli minister last year in retaliation for Israel's earlier killing of its leader, Abu Ali Mostafa, provoked anger in Palestinian ranks, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The top official of the PFLP, Rabah Mohana, said Thursday the group had demanded an urgent meeting of the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership to discuss the arrest of Saadat by Palestinian intelligence agents.
Mohana said the PFLP planned a series of demonstrations both in the occupied Palestinian territories and abroad to protest the arrest, and also called on the other PA factions -- Arafat's Fatah and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- to urge Saadat's release.
Israel has said Arafat cannot leave Ramallah, ringed by Israeli tanks and checkpoints, until he arrests not only Saadat but also the two men accused of carrying out the October 17 hit on Israeli tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.
Mohana said the arrest of Saadat was playing into the hands of Israel's right-wing Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon.
"This decision has helped only Sharon," he said.
Meanwhile, Arafat said Israel wants to kill "all Palestinian leaders" and accused Sharon of seeking conflict rather than a resolution to the Middle East crisis.
"This is a systematic tactic," Arafat told the daily French newspaper, Le Figaro, Thursday. "The Israelis want to kill all Palestinian leaders, one after another."
In an interview from his Ramallah headquarters in the West Bank -- where he has been under virtual house arrest since December 2001 -- Arafat said the Palestinian Authority was jailing Palestinian leaders, but Sharon was not playing a fair game himself.
"Our problem with Sharon is that in reality he does not want a (peace) accord. He prefers conflict so he blocks everything," Arafat said.
He said the Palestinian Authority was making a "100 percent effort" to resolve the crisis with the Israelis. A government could never promise 100 percent results, but what mattered were the efforts.
"The Israelis do nothing to reduce the tension,” he said. “What right do they have to keep me from leaving Ramallah? And look how they treat the Palestinian population."
"This is not the way to create an atmosphere favorable to the resumption of negotiations," he added.
Sharon says Arafat will be free to move once those responsible for last year's assassination of Israel’s extreme right-wing minister of tourism, Rehavam Zeevi, are arrested.
Ahmed Saadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was arrested Monday in order to get him to hand over the alleged killers, Arafat said.
In the interview, he also criticized the United States: "The Israelis chose force, America doesn't listen."
"Why doesn't the European Union attempt to take over? In acting or on the other hand choosing to abstain, Europe is playing with her reputation," he said.
Meanwhile, tensions mounted again as Israeli occupation troops fired near Arafat's offices in Ramallah overnight.
There were no casualties in the attack in the West Bank town, but Israeli armored vehicles advanced to within meters (yards) of Arafat's offices, Palestinian security officials said.
Arafat was to meet in Ramallah with visiting Spanish Foreign Minister, Josep Pique, whose country holds the rotating E.U. presidency and who has called for Arafat’s freedom of movement to be restored.
However, a visit by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, William Burns, who was expected to interrupt his tour of Arab states with a stop-off in the occupied territories, appeared unlikely, a U.S. official said, AFP reported.
The official said Burns was likely instead to head straight back for Washington, where U.S. special envoy, Anthony Zinni, was still waiting for the green light to come back to Israel after the latest leg of his truce-seeking mission was delayed for unspecified reasons.
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