Khaliliyeh was gunned down in front of Jenin municipality by plainclothed Israeli security forces traveling in a civilian vehicle (AFP)

JENIN, West Bank, January 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As Israeli occupation forces continued aggressions killing two more Palestinians, Premier Ahmed Qorie warned Thursday, January 8, his government would seek a bi-national state to counter Israeli unilateral measures eating up West Bank lands.

An Israeli undercover unit killed an activist from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian security and medical sources said.

Asaad Salah Khaliliyeh, 32, was shot dead in front of the Jenin municipality by plainclothed Israeli security forces traveling in a civilian vehicle, they were quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

However, Israeli occupation sources claimed the man was shot and killed after trying to flee paramilitary border police who went to arrest him.

In another crime, Israeli occupation forces stationed inside the Jewish settlement of Rafiah Yam, in the Gaza Strip, open fire on the neighboring Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah, killing a Palestinian man.

The 42-year-old victim was shutting a window in his home at the time, the agency quoted witnesses as saying.

The new deaths brought the toll from the nearly 40-month-old Palestinian Intifada to 3,695, including 2,769 Palestinians and 860 Israelis, according to an AFP count.

Bi-National State

"The wall is to unilaterally mark the borders…It will kill the road map and kill the two-state vision," Qorei said

On the political front, Qorie told Reuters Palestinians would seek a bi-national state and demand the same rights as Israelis if Israel carried out threats of unilateral disengagement measures.

In a speech Thursday, December 18, Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon threatened that " Israel will initiate the unilateral security step of disengagement from the Palestinians."

He said Israel "will greatly accelerate" the construction of the separation wall, a controversial barrier that will eat up large swathes of Palestinian territories and pre-judge the borders of the future Palestinian state.

Qorie said Sharon's unilateralism could prompt Palestinians to abandon efforts for a two-state solution, the vision of U.S. President George Bush.

Also, the internationally-back roadmap blueprint calls for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza beside a secure Israel by 2005.

Showing maps of the wall, Qorie said it "is to unilaterally mark the borders, this is the intention behind the wall ... It will kill the road map and kill the two-state vision."

"This is an apartheid solution to put the Palestinians in cantons. Who can accept this?" he remarked.

"We will go for a one-state solution...There's no other solution. We will not hesitate to defend the right of our people when we feel the very serious intention (of Israel) to destroy these rights."

Qorie, a moderate and former peace negotiator who took power in November, has blamed Israel for provoking more violence with army raids and missile strikes.

Reacting to Sharon's threats, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Washington "would oppose any unilateral steps that block the road towards negotiations under the road map that leads to the two state vision."

Pressures

Some Palestinian intellectuals say the one state solution would put pressure on Israel, which would then have to reassume the full financial and legal burden of caring for the Palestinian population in its capacity as an occupation power.

But they agree it should be used only as a last resort since it would mean dropping longstanding aspirations for a state of their own.

Israeli politicians, including figures in Sharon's rightist Likud party, have voiced alarm that Jews could lose their majority and see their democratic institutions threatened under such a state.