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SURDA, West Bank (AFP) - Israeli soldiers looking for a suspected "terrorist" shot and killed 73-year-old Palestinian Mahmud Assad Abdallah in a West Bank village before dawn on Wednesday. Mahmud Assad Abdallah, the mohtar, or traditional chief, of the village of Surda near Ramallah, was killed after he fired at the Israeli patrol from the roof of his home, local army commander General Gal Hirsch said. Palestinians reacted angrily to the killing, which occurred ahead of renewed efforts to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal with a September 13th deadline fast approaching. "The Israeli soldiers were attacked in a sector where they were responsible for security by a man with an illegal weapon, and had no other choice but to defend themselves," Hirsch said, calling the incident "deeply regrettable."
The man's son, AFP journalist Hisham Abdallah, said his father regularly slept on the roof of his hilltop house and may have thought he had spotted thieves. "I heard some shots, and quickly realized that he had been seriously wounded in the head," said Abdallah, adding that his father had carried a gun. He said Israelis prevented Palestinian ambulances from reaching the house, forcing relatives to bring the dying man out and leave him beside the road until a military ambulance came to take him away. Hisham Abdallah said he was detained for questioning for seven hours by the Israeli internal security service, Shin Beth, on suspicion of being linked to the Lebanese Shiite Muslim group, Hezbollah. An officer "immediately told me he wanted to arrest me, showing me a list of Hezbollah activists to whom, according to him, I was linked," he said, adding that his brother Saif was also questioned. Abdallah said he was released to attend his father's funeral, expected to be on Thursday afternoon, and told to return for further questioning on Sunday. "This criminal act is a dangerous escalation by the occupation authority, especially at a time when there are serious efforts to resume the negotiations between the two sides," the Palestinian legislative council said in a statement after a weekly meeting in Ramallah. "The Palestinian leadership will not stand by and do nothing against this act," it added. Arab-Israeli Member of Parliament Ahmed Tibi, a friend of the family, called the incident "a cold-blooded killing and a provocation." He added that Abdallah was also the uncle of a PLO representative to Washington. Palestinian communications minister Imad Falouji said: "It proves that Israel is continuing to behave like an occupier of our people, and this is not good for peace and stability." "We refuse to pay the price of peace with our blood, and if this type of action continues there will be not only Palestinian blood shed but Israeli blood as well," he warned. |
He said the army was conducting an unspecified "activity" in the area and that Abdallah was not the target, but the patrol had responded with M-16 assault rifles when fired upon with a pistol.
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