The Israeli Defense Ministry on Sunday published a list of its seven most wanted "Palestinian terrorists," shortly after its helicopters killed a Hamas resistance movement leader in the West Bank town of Tulkarem.
After acknowledging responsibility for the assassination, Israeli authorities alleged that the target was organizing suicide attacks.
The seven most wanted head a longer list of terror suspects handed to the Palestinian Authority, which had agreed to arrest them, the defense ministry said in statement cited by AFP, adding that they failed to do so.
"These terrorists are freely continuing their attacks," it said.
The Israeli government said last Wednesday it was determined to press ahead with its policy of assassinating Palestinian "terrorists and their commanders."
Following is the list as published by AFP:
1- Raad Mohamed Raaf Karmi, 27, a Fateh activist, accused by Israel of the murder on June 18 of two Israelis in Tulkarem, on the boundary between the West Bank and Israel proper.
2- Tabet Azmi Sliman Mardawi, 25, an Islamic Jihad member, wanted in connection with a suicide attack in Hadera, north of Tel Aviv on May 25, which injured 45 people, and for another attack in the same area on July 16 which killed two and wounded eight.
3- Mahmoud Ahmed Mohamed Tuelbeh, 22, Islamic Jihad member, accused of involvement in the Hadera attack and in another abortive suicide bombing in Afula in northern Israel on July 11.
4- Kamel Najib Amin Abu-Waa, 27, member of Force 17, from the refugee camp of Balata near Nablus in the West Bank, accused of murdering an Israeli on May 8 in a West Bank Jewish settlement.
5- Ahmed Yussef Mussa Alameh, 33, a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) from the West Bank town of Ramallah and wanted for two car bomb attacks in Jerusalem on February 8 and March 21.
6- Moussa Mohammed Hassin Kuleb, 30, a Hamas member from Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, thought to be behind mortar attacks on Jewish settlements and Israeli military positions.
7- Nabil Hassan Salem Sharihi, 26, a member of Islamic Jihad from the refugee camp of Nuseirat in the Gaza Strip, said to have been behind attempted suicide bombings on February 3 and June 17 in the Gaza Strip.
Two Palestinians and a female Jewish settler were killed Sunday, and 15 others were injured.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said his helicopter gunships killed Amer Hudire in the Tulkarem attaack because he was a member of the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, and was planning a suicide attack within Israel, according to Haaretz newspaper.
Hudire was killed and four other Palestinians were wounded when Israeli helicopters launched a rocket attack Sunday afternoon in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, north of Nablus.
Witnesses said the Israelis fired two missiles at the car Hudire was driving, killing him and reducing the vehicle to a burned-out shell.
Palestinian security sources said the four others wounded in the attack were passers-by, not linked to Hamas.
The attack sparked a sustained exchange of fire in Tulkarem between Palestinians and Israelis that lasted beyond 8:30pm (1730 GMT), Palestinian security sources and Israeli army radio said, cited by AFP.
In another development, the Israeli army hit Palestinian Authority positions in the West Bank overnight Sunday, after a female Jewish settler was killed and four others were injured in a drive-by shooting directed at two vehicles near the West Bank settlement of Alfei Menasheh, east of Qalqilyah, said reports.
The woman killed was Tehiya Bloomberg, a 40-year-old member of the settlement of Ginot Shomron, who was eight months pregnant.
Israel Radio reported Monday morning that her husband was in serious condition, as was another passenger driving in the car with them.
The Bloomberg's 14-year-old daughter was in moderate condition; two other children in the car were escaped unwounded.
In retaliation, an Israeli helicopter fired four missiles at Palestinian security positions in the Qalqiliyah area.
There were reports that a Palestinian was killed by the Israeli army in the attack.
Earlier Sunday, a Palestinian armed with an automatic rifle and a pistol opened fire on Israeli soldiers in Tel Aviv, injuring eight of them, police sources said.
The Palestinian was identified by army radio as Ali Jolani, a father of three.
Jolani tried to escape in a car but was shot by Israeli police and his vehicle crashed into a pylon. He was taken to hospital where he later died, Tel Aviv police chief Yossi Setbon said on public television.
The shooting spree occurred in front of the Ministry of Defense building in Tel Aviv, where a major peace rally had been staged the night before.
In another incident, a Palestinian boy was seriously injured on Sunday night at Karni, a Gaza Strip border crossing, when he was hit by a bullet fired by the Israeli army, hospital sources said.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo earlier Sunday warned that the Palestinians would retaliate for the Jewish state's assassination policy, and that the blame for the upsurge in violence would be on Sharon's shoulders.
"We feel that the Israeli assassinations will lead to some retaliation and the retaliation is the responsibility of the Israeli government and Sharon personally," Abed Rabbo told reporters.
Since the September 2000 eruption of the latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation, AFP estimates that Palestinians have killed 129 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to AFP, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 541 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to an Amnesty International report issued early this year, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children. In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
