Palestinians detain PLO official

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Posted 8:53AM on Wednesday, January 16, 2002

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK - The Palestinian Authority said it has detained a senior PLO official whose supporters assassinated an Israeli Cabinet minister last fall - a step long demanded by Israel and apparently aimed at reducing tensions after a spate of killings of Israelis by Palestinian militants. The detention of Ahmed Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction, came just hours after Palestinian gunmen killed a 72-year-old Israeli-American man shopping for building supplies near the West Bank town of Bethlehem and a 45-year-old Israeli woman driving to a wedding north of Jerusalem. On Wednesday, the body of a Palestinian man was found in his car near the Jewish West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron. The victim had Israeli citizenship and was in a car with Israeli license plates. Initial reports said he apparently was the victim of a shooting attack. The shootings came in the wake of the death of a Palestinian militia leader, Raed Karmi, in a Monday bomb blast widely attributed to Israel. Karmi's supporters have said they would avenge their leader with new attacks on Israelis. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the new violence proved that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's support for a cease-fire was a farce. ``Arafat didn't take a single step to stop terror activity. Therefore we must take measures and provide security to the citizens of Israel,'' Sharon said. Israeli officials held Karmi responsible for the deaths of nine Israelis and said he was planning a new attack in the near future. However, Israeli military commentator Amos Harel on Wednesday questioned the timing of the killing of Karmi. ``The key question ... is how loud was Karmi's ticking bomb?'' Harel wrote in the respected Haaretz daily. ``So loud that Israel had no choice but to kill him, even at the cost of starting a new escalation in the violence?'' Saadat, the PFLP leader, was summoned Tuesday evening to a meeting with Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfiq Tirawi in a hotel in the West Bank town of Ramallah, members of the faction said Wednesday. During the meeting, special forces stormed the room and arrested a surprised Saadat, said Abdel Rahim Mallouh, deputy leader of the faction. Mallouh said the arrest of Saadat was a ``very dangerous action'' and would have consequences, but that the PFLP would not engage in a confrontation with the Palestinian Authority. The ease with which Saadat was located by Palestinian security forces appeared to underscore Israeli complaints that the Palestinian Authority was not making a serious effort to track down militants and prevent attacks on Israelis. Israel has told Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat that he would not be able to leave Ramallah, where he has been confined for more than a month, unless the killers of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi and those who sent them were in custody. Israel said the two assassins are still at large in Ramallah. Israeli government officials on Wednesday greeted the report of Saadat's detention with skepticism, saying the Palestinian Authority has lied in the past about the arrests of militants. However, the army's West Bank commander, Brig. Gen. Gershon Yitzhak, said that ``as far as we know, it (Saadat's detention) happened.'' This week's killings of Israelis came after a relative lull of several weeks, with a sharp decrease in attacks by gunmen linked to Arafat's Fatah faction. The drop came after Arafat declared Dec. 16 he was enforcing a cease-fire. In Tuesday's violence, gunmen shot and killed engineer Avi Boaz, riddling his car with 20 bullets. Boaz, who also was a U.S. citizen, was in the West Bank looking for materials for a house he was building in a nearby Jewish settlement. The army said that Boaz, who had a wooden leg and a glass eye, approached a Palestinian checkpoint in the town of Beit Jalla with a Palestinian friend. Armed civilians at the checkpoint pulled the Palestinian friend out of the car and four armed Palestinians got in, said army spokesman Lt. Col. Sharon Levy. Boaz was later found dead. Four Palestinian police at the checkpoint did not intervene, Levy said. The victim's daughter said her father had spent much of his time in the Palestinian areas, and had many close Palestinian friends. The Al Aqsa Brigades, a militia linked to Fatah, claimed responsibility. Karmi, the militia leader killed Monday, headed the Al Aqsa Brigades in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, and his supporters have pledged revenge. A few hours after that shooting, gunmen opened fire on an Israeli car in the West Bank settlement of Givat Zeev, just north of Jerusalem. Two gunmen stopped the car just before a gas station in Givat Zeev, and spoke to the driver and passenger, apparently to make sure they were Israelis. Then the gunmen opened fire from short ranging, killing the driver Yoela Chen, and wounding her aunt. The two had been on their way to a family wedding, police said. Yitzhak said Israel knew the identity of the two killers, and that the Palestinian Authority has claimed in the past that the two were in custody. In all, seven Israelis have been killed since last Wednesday. Three Palestinians have also been killed, including two gunmen who attacked an Israeli army post. The killings have called into question an informal cease-fire that Israeli and Palestinian leaders said they hadn't abandoned.