|
As Five More Killed, Israel Claims Using Palestinians To Assassinate Palestinians
by Mohamed al-Saleh for IslamOnline
JERUSALEM (IslamOnline & AFP) – Tension ran high at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan Monday after Israeli commandos shot dead five Palestinians, despite new steps to calm the Palestinian territories and revive peacemaking.
In the latest bloodletting, the Israeli army said its troops killed five "terrorists" who opened fire on a car near a Jewish settlement outside Qalqilyia in the northern West Bank late Sunday.
Qalqilya governor Mustafa al-Malki accused Israel of shooting them in cold blood.
The army identified them as members of the militia wing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, which Israel accuses of waging anti-Israeli attacks, but this was denied by a local Fatah official.
And an official from the Islamic group Hamas said four of them were members of the movement, which is violently opposed to Israel and has carried out numerous deadly bomb attacks in recent years.
After more than two months of a popular Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, the Jewish state says it will turn to its Palestinian agents inside Palestinian territories to “assassinate” anti-Israel activists, Israeli radio reported Monday.
According to Israeli Army Radio, Israel’s Military Intelligence has been monitoring members of resistance movements like Hamas, Jihad and Fatah, and has collected information concerning their locations through Palestinians working for Israel.
The Palestinian Authority gave little heed to the report, saying it was aimed at sowing seeds of dissension in order to break Palestinian national unity.
Amid harsh Israeli measures trying to quell Palestinian protestors, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said his troops would continue combating Palestinians who throw stones at the Israeli army, but also said that he okayed new tactics to end the Intifiada.
The new measures, he said, are called “special elimination operations” and were aimed at destroying what Barak called “the hard nucleus of Palestinian resistance.”
The Radio said an operation carried out last week targeting five Palestinians fell under the category and said the assassinations were made possible with the help of Palestinian informers and agents.
Hosting an Israeli army spokesman, Israeli radio said Palestinian agents supplied Israeli intelligence with information on the whereabouts of Hamas and Fatah leaders.
The spokesman said the assassination of Ibrahim Audey, a Hamas commander in the Palestinian city of Nablus, was actually carried out by Palestinian agents.
The Palestinian leadership say they generally do not rule out the role of “traitors” in some of the one-on-one assassinations that have taken place over the past few days.
Palestinians have been protesting against Israeli occupation after hardline Israeli politician, Ariel Sharon, paid a provocative visit to al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, on September 28.
The Palestinians say at least 300 Palestinians have been killed in the bloody clashes since then.
And in a controversial report likely to enflame Palestinian sentiments, the Israeli army said it was possible Palestinian rather than Israeli bullets killed Mohammed Al-Durra, the 12-year-boy whose death has become a graphic and haunting symbol of the two-month intifada.
|
