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Israeli Troops Assassinate Palestinian in Nablus
NABLUS, West Bank, Oct 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli troops Sunday shot dead a Palestinian man they accuse of organizing the deadliest bombing in the past year, even as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was due to finally ease the blockade on Palestinian territories, news agencies reported.
The shooting of Abdul Rahman Hamad, 35, in Kalkilya on the West Bank near the administrative boundary with the Jewish state, was the first time Israel has reverted to its much-criticized and oft-used policy of liquidating Palestinians since a truce deal was struck three weeks ago.
Such assassinations, which Israel terms "targeted killings", has been part and parcel of Israel's attempts to quell Palestinian resistance to illegal Israeli occupation, the latest of which has claimed the lives of over 700 Palestinians, the majority of whom are under 18.
Israel accused Hamad, a leader of the armed wing of the anti-occupation resistance group Hamas, of organizing the June 1st attack on a Tel Aviv nightclub that killed 22 people, as well as the bomber.
The killing sent a tremor through preparations for an accord to ease restrictions.
Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio, "This is a crime and means the Israeli promises for calm are mere lies and we cannot trust them."
Sharon was expected to relax the choking security restrictions in areas of the Gaza Strip and West Bank where relative calm has been restored, although officials warned the deal would be off if any shooting broke out, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
One of the key areas was set to be a district of self-rule Hebron (al-Khalil), the flashpoint West Bank town where 400 hardcore Israeli settlers live under heavy army guard at the heart of a population of 120,000 Palestinians.
The Israeli army invaded and re-occupied the Abu Sneinah district last week after Palestinian gunmen wounded two women at a Jewish festival.
Israeli radio said Sharon told his weekly cabinet meeting that an accord had been reached whereby Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority promised to ensure a complete cessation of firing from the area if Israeli tanks withdrew.
After a shaky start, the truce seemed to gain strength again Friday when Israel's foreign minister, Shimon Peres, met chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and parliamentary spokesman Ahmed Qorei.
"The meeting was very serious and positive ... But experience has taught us to remain cautious, and what will actually happen on the ground in the next days remains to be seen. It will be a test of how serious the Israelis are," Qorei told the
Al-Ayam daily.
A high-level security meeting was also scheduled for later Sunday.
The latest Intifada, or uprising, against illegal Israeli occupation has come into sharp international focus after Arab leaders warned it was a cause of ongoing tensions that help fuel groups such as Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, currently under U.S. and British attack in Afghanistan.
Arafat was due to fly to London later Sunday for a meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair which he hopes will boost his standing as he struggles to fulfill his truce obligations by reining in on religio-political groups who have growing popular support among frustrated Palestinians.
Blair said in an interview with the British weekly The Observer that a "security bridge" should be created to move the Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire process onto the next stage, which he said would include "serious talks" between Arafat and Sharon.
He added that he understood the "cynicism" of some in the Arab world about the West's historic role in the Middle East.
A senior Palestinian official, meanwhile, also said Palestinian security forces had prevented suicide attacks on Israel by hardliners in the past two weeks, the first time they had acknowledged doing so since the start of the Intifada, almost 13 months ago.
Among the arrested were members of Islamic Jihad.
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