One Israeli soldier was killed and two other troops were injured Monday afternoon in a drive-by shooting near the West Bank village of Kuchin, between Nablus and Tul Karm. One of the wounded sustained moderate injuries and the other sustained light injuries.
Earlier, The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a military wing of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah, announced that the killing of its Tulkarem activist Raed al-Karmi had not accomplished a thing and would cancel truce understandings announced last month by Palestinian leader Arafat.
"Israel started this and we must react." "The reaction will come fast - very fast," ," indicated a statement by the Brigade.
Al-Karmi Killing
On Monday morning, Israeli forces assassinated a senior Tanzim official in the city of Tul Karm. Raed al-Karmi was one of the heads of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.
Palestinian sources conveyed that al-Karmi was from an explosion in his vehicle. According to one source, “The Israelis planted an explosive device near a fence. He [al-Karmi] received a telephone call from someone asking him to leave the house." "As soon as he approached the fence, the device exploded and he was killed.”
Israeli forces previously attempted to kill al-Karmi several months ago, but failed. Al-Karmi in the past had boasted to reporters that he “had seven lives” and would elude any Israeli attempts to kill him.
Israeli Reaction
The Israeli army commented that al-Karmi was responsible for the killing of two Israelis dining in a restaurant in Tul Karm near the onset of the current Intifada.
Israel has faced staunch international criticism for its assassination policy. The last alleged assassination came nearly two months ago in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Israeli Cabinet Minister Ephraim Sneh told Army Radio shortly after the killing that Karmi "was one of the most deadly and explicit of terror activists."
Replying to whether the assassination was brought about at the wrong moment in time, due to U.S. efforts to bring the sides back to the negotiating table, Sneh conveyed "I am in favor of strictly adhering to a cease-fire, but a man like this... is of the order of a ticking bomb, a man who initiated terrorist attacks even during periods of truce. If he continued to initiate terrorist attacks, he was a man with whom we were at war, and all these rules don't apply to him."
Ashrawi Comments
Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi blamed Israeli Prime Minister Sharon for Monday’s killing and called for efforts to prevent such acts in the future.
"This assassination means that Sharon is insisting on behaving as a state of mafia and gangs, adopting assassinations as a matter of policy and willfully targeting innocent Palestinians," she declared.
"These are certainly crimes against humanity. This government has to be restrained. It knows no moral or legal boundaries. There must be intervention to stop it from using the maximum violence against a helpless population", Ashrawi strongly added. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
