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Israel Assassinates Five Palestinian Activists In Gaza Strip
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| "What happened in Gaza shows that the [Israeli] government doesn't want calm but wants an escalation against the Palestinian people,” Arafat said. |
GAZA CITY, Feb. 4 (News Agencies) - Five members of the Palestinian resistance group, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), were murdered Monday when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at their car in the Gaza Strip, news agencies reported.
The four of the members of the DFLP died immediately. Three of them were named as Majid Moamer, Aiman El Bugdaree and Ibrahim Jarbuwa, AFP reported.
A fifth man, Nasir Abu Athra, 33, died hours after the blast.
A Palestinian security source said two Israeli helicopters were overflying the area on the road between Gaza City and Khan Yunis at the time, and one of them fired a missile at the vehicle.
"The Israeli occupation forces committed a crime of assassination against four members of the Brigade of Palestinian National Resistance," the armed wing of the DFLP said in a statement received by AFP immediately after the blast, vowing revenge for the assassination.
Besieged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat also blamed Israel for the assassination, saying they proved Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants to destroy the peace process.
"What happened in Gaza shows that the [Israeli] government doesn't want calm but wants an escalation against the Palestinian people, but nobody will break these people," AFP quoted Arafat as tolling reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The Israeli army made no comment on the attack, but Israeli public radio claimed the men were allegedly killed by a "work accident," Israel's term for what it claimed was a premature explosion of a bomb being prepared or transported by militants.
The latest deaths bring to 906 the total number of Palestinians killed by Israel since the start of the 16-month-old Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation.
Israel has carried out dozens of targeted assassinations of suspected Palestinian activists, in a policy approved and adopted by the Israeli cabinet, though highly condemned by the international community. This assassination policy has claimed the lives of 70 Palestinian activists and have left civilian bystanders dead too.
Israel has said that if the Palestinian Authority does not crack down on activists, it will hunt them down itself.
The Palestinians call the extra-judicial killings a provocation designed to inflame tensions and trigger an armed response from hardliners.
In another development, Israeli helicopters also launched an overnight attack on a Palestinian metal works in the Jabaliya refugee camp to the north of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian police officials said.
The building was seriously damaged by four missiles, they said.
An Israeli military spokesman again claimed the metal factory was allegedly being used in the production of mortar bombs.
An Israeli helicopter also attacked a Palestinian police position at Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, early Monday, causing a number of injuries, a Palestinian security source said.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, an Israeli unit moved into the Palestinian autonomous zone of Bethlehem. A Palestinian police source said there had been shooting between the troops and Palestinians, but was unable to say whether there were victims.
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