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Israel Targets Hamas As Diplomacy Efforts Underway
CAIRO (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel shot dead a member of the occupation resistance movement Hamas in what Israel calls “target killings” carried out over the past few weeks. Israeli fire claimed the lives of three other Palestinians activists as diplomacy intensified to end an 11-week Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said on Thursday that a member of its military wing, Hani Abu Bakr, was killed in cold blood at a checkpoint in southern Gaza. Three other Palestinians were also injured. One of the wounded reportedly remains seriously injured.
The Internet edition of the daily Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, quoted an official with the Israeli army as saying that all the Palestinians were armed and they were “en route to carry out a terror attack.”
The official said that Abu Bakr was shot dead as he stepped out of his minibus and pulled out a gun.
Israel has labeled Hamas as a terrorist group as the underground organization carries out military operations against Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories. Hamas is also largely opposed to the Middle East land-for-peace talks and has said the only way to win back Arab land is by “forcing” the Israelis out.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, a few weeks ago, approved a policy of “targeting” activists who were known to the security apparatus of the Jewish state in a bid to pre-empt any possible strikes against Israel. Most of those on Israel’s hit list were recently released from Palestinian Authority jails after Israel used heavy machinery to quell the uprising.
So far, Israel has target-killed four Palestinians for belonging to anti-Israeli groups since Monday, and six since last month. Palestinians say it is part of a series of assassinations. There has been no word from Palestinian groups on what course of action they plan to take in retaliation.
Meanwhile, a Lebanese newspaper reported that agents of the Israeli secret service, the Mossad, tried to assassinate a leading member of the political wing of Hamas as he attended an Islamic conference in Doha, the Qatari capital, last month.
Al-Mustakbal newspaper said the agents used Canadian and Norwegian passports, however Khalid Mashal was given a bulletproof car. The Mossad had previously tried and failed to kill Mashal in the Jordanian capital of Amman more than two years ago. Mashal has been living in Doha since that failed attempt on his life.
The paper said this incident prompted Qatar to cut ties with the Jewish state.
Meanwhile, unlike at the start of the Intifada, news agencies reported from the Occupied Territories that stone throwing has become rare while gun battles and bombings have become more routine.
Israel also said that it would allow some 3,000 Palestinians to work in Israel-controlled areas in the first such development since Israel sealed of parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entry into Israel, easing the economic blockade against Palestinians. But Palestinians officials said only 43 workers have said they would go, the rest apparently fearing for their own safety.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine began a two-day mission to the Middle East in an attempt to reach a diplomatic solution for the deadlocked peace process.
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