Israelis arrest Palestinian suspect

Posted 8:18AM on Thursday 24th January 2002 ( 23 years ago )

HEBRON, WEST BANK - Israeli undercover troops wearing traditional Arab headdresses arrested a suspected Palestinian militant in a raid of a Hebron bakery Thursday. A Palestinian intelligence officer was killed in a gunbattle with Israeli troops in another West Bank town. Also Thursday, the bodies of two Palestinians were found near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip. A radical PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said the two were killed in a ``heroic martyrs' operation'' against Kfar Darom late Wednesday. The PFLP did not explain how the two died, and the Israeli military had no immediate comment. In the Hebron raid, six Israeli undercover officers knocked on the back door of the bakery, pushed aside a man opening it and shot and wounded the wanted man, a bakery employee identified as Hazem Qawasmeh, witnesses said. A bystander was also wounded, said bakery owner Ali Shweiki. Israeli troops took the two wounded men to a nearby Jewish settler enclave, and later released the bystander. The Israeli military had no comment, including on charges by witnesses that troops opened fire without provocation. Qawasmeh is a member of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, and was wanted by Israeli for planting pipe bombs near Israeli positions. Israel has carried out numerous arrest raids in recent weeks, with troops often entering Palestinian-controlled areas. Israel says it had to step in because the Palestinian Authority has done little to capture fugitives. Palestinian officials say they have worked hard to enforce a truce declared by Arafat on Dec. 16. But they said persistent Israeli strikes against Palestinians, including the killing of a local militia leader last week, have created a bitter climate that makes it increasingly difficult to enforce the truce. In the West Bank town of Ramallah, a member of the Palestinian intelligence service, Riyad Sadi, 26, was killed in a clash with Israeli forces early Thursday. There have been frequent gunbattles since Israeli tanks entered additional neighborhoods of Ramallah last week, in response to a Palestinian shooting attack. As part of the Israeli reprisal, tanks also tightened their cordon around the Ramallah headquarters of Arafat, who has been confined to the city by Israel since Nov. 29. Ahmed Abdel Rahman, secretary of the Palestinian Cabinet, said the Palestinian Authority could not enforce a cease-fire with Israel while ``Israeli guns are being pointed to our heads.'' Abdel Rahman charged that Israel is responsible for the current violence. Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, rejected the charges. ``That's sheer nonsense,'' he said. ``In the past we gave them all the opportunities. We withdrew our forces.'' He said Arafat is escalating the violence to try to gain support among Arab nations. If the Palestinians do not stop terrorism from the territories they control, he said, ``then we have the right to go in and defend ourselves.'' Hamas declared ``all-out war'' after the raid of the Nablus bomb factory, in which the West Bank commander of the Hamas military wing and three others under his command were killed. Hamas members marched alongside pro-Arafat militiamen in Nablus on Wednesday. In a phone call Wednesday, Arafat called on Secretary of State Colin Powell to send mediator Anthony Zinni back to the region. In the past two months, Zinni has tried twice without success to work out a truce. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said there were no plans to send the envoy. Powell urged Arafat to curb the violence. On Thursday, a funeral was set for a 79-year-old Israeli woman, one of two bystanders killed when a Palestinian gunman linked to Fatah opened fire in downtown Jerusalem on Tuesday. The gunman was shot and killed by Israeli police. The woman, Sarah Hamburger, lived in Hebron as a young child and survived the 1929 massacre in which 67 Jews were killed by Arab residents of the city, the Jerusalem Post daily said. An Arab neighbor helped the family to flee.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/1/203259