Palestinians kill rabbi in tit-for-tat

JERUSALEM - Palestinians shot dead a rabbi from a Jewish settlement in the West Bank yesterday in what militants called the first response to an Israeli air strike that killed 15 Palestinians, including a top militant.

Two Palestinian groups claimed responsibility for killing Rabbi Elimelech Shapira, 43, and wounding another man in an ambush as they drove along a road near a Jewish settlement close to the West Bank town of Qalqilya.

"The operation is part of the armed struggle and in response to the assassination of our people in Gaza and [Hamas militant] Salah Shehada," said the Popular Army Front-Return Battalions, a coalition of militant groups.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group which is part of the coalition and has links to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, also took responsibility for the ambush, which heightened fears of a fierce new round of violence.

The Islamic group Hamas has vowed to kill hundreds of Israelis to avenge Wednesday's attack by an F-16 warplane which fired a one-tonne guided missile at the house of Shehada, commander of Hamas' military wing, killing him and 14 others.

Nine children were among the dead, most of them in buildings near Shehada's home, and 145 people were injured in an assault that was criticised in Israel and abroad.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israelis and Palestinians alike must brace for more violence following the air strike, in which he said Israel had made mistakes.

"I know that this is a serious escalation and I am really afraid that innocent people on both sides will pay a high price," he told Israel's Army Radio.

Yesterday Palestinians in Gaza fired a Qassam missile at an Israeli kibbutz on the other side of the border, military sources said. It landed 15m from a house but there were no injuries.

Witnesses said troops arrested four Palestinians in Qalqilya after the West Bank ambush, including a militant leader, and that an Army bulldozer demolished the house where he was found.

Hospital sources also said 10 Palestinians were hurt by an explosion between a minibus and a taxi in the West Bank town of Jenin. They said the blast may have been caused by a land mine planted by Palestinians as a defence against Israeli forces.

Israel has rarely been confronted with as much criticism in the 22 months of conflict since the start of a Palestinian uprising in September 2000 as it has over Wednesday's air strike. It faced more during a late-night emergency debate in the United Nations Security Council.

Nation after nation said the attack was unacceptable and unwarranted, but US officials said Washington, Israel's closest ally, would oppose a draft resolution condemning the attack if it were put to a vote.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington constantly reviewed Israel's use of US weapons, but gave no hint that it would suffer consequences for the F-16 air raid. The US Government has criticised the air strike as heavy-handed.

Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer defended the killing, saying that intelligence had come in indicating Shehada was plotting a "mega-terror attack" soon with an explosives-filled truck that would have killed hundreds.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said the Gaza attack was an attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to sabotage recent efforts by Palestinian moderates to reduce violence.

Sharon condemns the Palestinian Authority as a backer of terror and wants a new leadership and sweeping reforms as conditions for fresh peace talks.

In a gesture designed to help deflect criticism, Peres said Israel would release US$43 million ($92 million) of frozen Palestinian Authority tax revenues and take other steps to ease hardships of 700,000 Palestinians living under curfew in the West Bank.

- REUTERS

Feature: Middle East

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