Gunmen fired at a car carrying the mayor of the Palestinian city of Nablus on Tuesday evening in an apparent assassination attempt that left him unhurt but killed his brother, local officials said.
The mayor, Ghassan Shaka, is a member of Fatah and the Palestinian parliament.
Local officials told Reuters it was likely Palestinian gunmen carried out the shooting and noted that leaflets, recently distributed in the West Bank, accused Shaka of cooperating with Israeli authorities.
The mayor's brother, Buraq Shaka, a businessman who was visiting from Jordan, was wounded in the attack and died later in a Nablus hospital.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration announced Tuesday night that it will trim $289.5 million from a $9 billion package of loan guarantees for Israel, penalizing Israel for its settlement activities in the pccupied territories.
In talks held Tuesday morning between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's bureau chief Dov Weisglass, U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Israel's ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon, it was agreed that the cut would also set off Israel's investments in several segments of the "West Bank fence," but these investments would be defined in a separate clause of the U.S. decision.
The calculation includes the sums that the Israeli government has spent in the West Bank and Gaza Strip both on infrastructure and on the security fence, but does not include investments defined as "security investments."
Ayalon told The Associated Press on Tuesday he was satisfied that an agreement had been reached and "this will enable Israel to go ahead and raise the rest of the loan guarantees."
National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said the agreement "acknowledges U.S. policy concerns and U.S. law regarding activities in the West Bank and Gaza and is a reflection of close and continuing consultations between our two governments." (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
