Jewish settlers shot dead a Palestinian man then set his body alight and tore out his eyes, witnesses said Monday, as attacks by Israeli civilians against Palestinians and Arabs intensified.
Issam Joudeh Hamad, 38, was kidnapped overnight by a group of settlers near the West Bank town of Ramallah, witnesses said, becoming the latest victim of more than a week of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has claimed the lives of almost 100 people.
Police, who earlier said they believed the man had been killed by the Israeli army, said he had been shot in the head, and hospital sources said his body was also burnt and his eyes ripped out.
Palestinians say that since Saturday Jewish settlers have been carrying out acts of vandalism and harassing Palestinians in several parts of the West Bank and in the Arab districts of Jerusalem.
"They are waging criminal acts against our citizens and the Israeli government must act immediately to bring them to an end," Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told reporters in Gaza.
Guests at the prestigious American Colony hotel in east Jerusalem, a popular haunt for journalists and diplomats, were evacuated temporarily on Monday along with some Arab staff members following anonymous threats against "Arabs."
The hotel management said police had informed it that they had received anonymous bomb threats for hotels in Arab areas of occupied east Jerusalem.
Members of Israel's Arab population -- Palestinians who remained after the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 -- complain too that they are being subjected to attacks by both Israeli civilians and police.
Arab Israeli MP Azmi Bishara called for UN chief Kofi Annan to intervene to stem an "escalation of violence" against the nation's Arab minority after a rampage by a mob of young Jews against Arab residents of Nazareth.
The attacks left two Arab Israelis dead and many more wounded.
"Since the commencement of what has come to be known as the al-Aqsa intifada we have been living in a grave state of danger," Bishara said in his letter to Annan, who is due in the region later in a bid to quell the bloody unrest.
"Since the Israeli authorities are unable to offer us protection, but rather are the perpetrators of the violence directed against us, I see no choice but to ask you to meet with us and call upon the international community to intervene on our behalf,' said Bishara, a member of the Balad party in the Israeli parliament.
Twelve Arab Israelis have been killed in violent clashes that spilled over into Israel from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, triggered by a visit by Israel's hardline opposition leader Ariel Sharon to the al-Asqa mosque compound in Jerusalem.
The site, holy to both Jews and Muslims, is the main stumbling block to a peace accord to put an end to half a century of Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
