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Israel Assassinates Second Hamas Member
NABLUS, West Bank, Oct 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A member of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas was blown up Monday in the second Israeli assassination of one of the group's activists in 24 hours, news agencies reported.
The car bombing in the West Bank town of Nablus came just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pulled his tanks out of a hotspot in Hebron, boosting a fragile ceasefire but sparking a crisis in his government, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Two ultra-nationalist party leaders in Sharon's coalition government said they would resign their posts over the move, although the departure of the hawkish Israel Beitenu - National Union bloc would not bring down the government.
The Israeli withdrawal from parts of Hebron met with opposition from National Infrastructure Minister Avigdot Lieberman of the Russian-speaking Israel Beitenu party, and Tourism Minister Rehevam Zeevi of the National Union, who said they were quitting the coalition in protest.
While the walkout threat was the most serious crisis for the government since it was formed seven months ago, the loss of support of their eight seats still leaves the cross-party administration with a comfortable majority in the 120-seat parliament.
"We want to leave the government to protest against this withdrawal because we want to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan," right-wing Knesset member Benny Eylon told Israeli public radio.
The killing of Hamas member Ahmad Mershud, 34, appeared to confirm Sharon's warning that the "liquidation" of senior Hamas member Abdul Rahman Hamad the day before was "not the first, nor the last" such operation.
Israel resumed its widely condemned hunt-and-kill policy against suspected Palestinian resistance activists Sunday for the first time since Palestinian President Yasser Arafat reached a truce deal with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on September 26th.
A leader of Hamas in Nablus, Adnan Asfur, said the slaying of Mershud was "a crime which confirms that the Israeli government's policy is to continue assassinating Palestinian freedom fighters."
Hamas has refused to recognize the Arafat-Peres truce, however, vowing to resist Israeli occupation.
Palestinian leaders call the illegal Israeli liquidation policy, which has killed more than 60 resistance activists, "state terrorism".
The assassination came as Israel moved to hold up its side of the truce deal, easing restrictions at some of its roadblocks in the West Bank and pulling tanks out of the Palestinian self-rule zone of Abu Sneinah in Hebron.
The withdrawal brought with it protests from the hard-core Jewish settlers living in an illegal settlement in the heart of the Palestinian territory.
Palestinian police were back in their positions Monday morning in Abu Sneinah and neighboring Al Sheikh.
The initiative also caused a stir in the Israeli army, after the chief of staff, General Shaul Mofaz, voiced his opposition to easing the army's stronghold on the Palestinian territories on the grounds that it would threaten security.
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz said Defense Minister Benyamin Ben Eliezer had severely reprimanded his army chief for publicly criticizing the cabinet decision.
The latest year-long Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, against illegal Israeli occupation and the illegal building of Jewish settlements on land seized in the 1967 Israeli aggression, has cost at least 875 lives - the vast majority being Palestinians, most of whom are under the age of 18.
Meanwhile, Arafat was in London meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
Straw told the British BBC News Service that the Labor government believed "recognition of a Palestinian state ... has to be part of the long-term path towards peace in the area."
Britain and the United States have expressed their backing for a Palestinian state.
In a newspaper interview on Sunday, Blair said the strikes against Afghanistan had to be balanced with advances in peace talks in the Middle East.
Palestinians have accused Israel of instigating violence in order to undermine Arafat's visit, which comes at Blair's invitation.
The U.K. had asked both sides to implement the Mitchell plan, which was put in place months before the terror attacks in New York and Washington.
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