Hammad’s brother weeps his body with chest gunshots

RAMALLAH, West Bank, November 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As the Palestinian Authority’s officials met Saturday, November 1, to discuss the make-up of Prime Minister Ahmad Qorei's new government, a Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

According to Palestinian security and hospital sources, Mohammed Hammad, 23, was shot in the chest by an Israeli patrol as he rode his motorbike in the city's Askar refugee camp, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Officials at the city's main hospital mortuary said they had Hammad's body.

Eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net that the Israeli occupation troops fatally fired at Hammad without warning.

“Hammad was riding his bike, suddenly the Israeli forces appeared from behind the rocks. He tried to stop but his motor-bike was turned down. The troops rushed to him, shot him twice in the chest without warning,” an eyewitness – who was nearby when the shooting happened – told IOL, asking not to be named.

Al-Jazeera.net quoted a reporter with the Associated Press as saying he saw the man's body in a hospital morgue with two gunshot wounds to the chest.

Israeli Denial

While a spokesman for the Israeli army confirmed its troops had fired on Hammad after he had ignored a no entry sign for vehicles, he denied they had delivered the fatal shot.

"Soldiers on a routine patrol in the camp ordered him to stop his motorbike but he rode off. They fired warning shots in the air and then fired at his legs, grazing him slightly," the spokesman said.

"After checking the man's identity - Mohammed Hammad - they offered to escort him home in an ambulance, but he said he wanted to go under his own steam and we have no idea what happened to him afterwards."

There was no independent confirmation of the Israeli claim. Palestinians accuse Israeli soldiers of often deliberately shooting civilians and then claiming they were resistance fighters, according to al-Jazeera.net website.

Hammad’s death brought the toll from three years of Palestinian Intifada to 3,590 - 2,675 of them Palestinians and 849 Israelis.

New Cabinet

Qorei has only until Tuesday to form the new cabinet

On the political arena, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's dominant Fatah group met in Ramallah Saturday to discuss the make-up of Prime Minister Ahmad Qorei's new government, amid reports Qorei and Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon could hold a summit.

At Arafat's Ramallah headquarters, his Fatah movement nominated the deputy for al-Khalil (Hebron) in the West Bank, Rafiq al-Natche, as its candidate for parliament speaker.

The speaker's post has been vacant since Qorei stepped down to head an emergency cabinet. Elections will take place Monday, Dalal Salama, head of parliament's political affairs committee told AFP.

Salama said the Ramallah meeting of Fatah deputies was discussing the make-up of Qorei's new government, while the Fatah central committee was also scheduled to meet in a bid to overcome the last obstacles to naming a cabinet.

Qorei was sworn in by Arafat as the head of a one-month eight-man emergency cabinet on October 7, after his predecessor Mahmud Abbas resigned after losing a power struggle with Arafat.

It is expected to form the nucleus of an enlarged government which now has to be presented to the Palestinian parliament for approval within the next three days.