A rchive Date
[ 10-11-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Israel ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2002/11/09/4018-ap.html
Israelis gun down Jihad leader
Sat, November 9, 2002
JERUSALEM (AP) - The Israeli army shot and killed one of Israel's most wanted men from the militant group Islamic Jihad in a gunfight on the West Bank of the Jordan River on Saturday, security officials said.
The group retaliated with a roadside bombing near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, killing an Israeli soldier.
Iyad Sawalha, a man Israel has accused of orchestrating attacks that left 31 Israelis dead, was killed after trading fire with troops from his hide-out in the West Bank town Jenin, Israeli officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Sawalha, a top Islamic Jihad leader on the northern West Bank, threw grenades and fired at troops after holing up behind a moveable wall in the hide-out leading to an underground cave, the officials said. Two soldiers were lightly injured, the army said.
In retaliation, Islamic Jihad said its militants set off a bomb on a road later Saturday near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, killing an Israeli soldier. In a statement released in Lebanon, the group said the attack was its first retaliation for the death of Sawalha.
The Israeli army said a 23-year-old soldier was killed while on a foot patrol near the Netzarim settlement when the roadside bomb detonated. The explosion also moderately wounded a second officer.
In the Jenin operation, Israeli forces conducting a search of the city's casbah identified the house as Sawalha's hide-out after finding papers on the doorstep that appeared to belong to his wife, Mariam, the officials said.
Next-door neighbour Soha Ekmel, a witness, said she heard Sawalha's wife scream for him to come out, telling him the Israeli forces had threatened to kill her if he did not. The army declined to comment on that report.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat criticized the operation, which fell during the Muslim holy month Ramadan.
"It is a very big crime that was committed, through military aggression against our people and against our (religious) holidays," Arafat said at his Ramallah headquarters.
Israel reoccupied Jenin almost three weeks ago in a bid to crack down on militant groups after an Oct. 25 suicide bombing claimed by Islamic Jihad.
The army said Sawalha was responsible for two suicide attacks - a bus bombing in June that killed 17 Israelis and another last month when two teenagers drove a car laden with explosives into a bus in northern Israel, leaving 14 Israelis dead.
The violence came as Palestinians prepared to submit next week a written response to a U.S.-backed peace plan that calls for broad Palestinian reforms, an Israeli troop-pullback, a freeze in Jewish settlement construction and full Palestinian independence in 2005.
Arafat said Israel could not afford to reject the peace plan - an apparent response to Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said the U.S. plan is not relevant as long as war with Iraq is pending.
U.S. envoy David Satterfield is expected in the region next week to talk with both sides about the plan.
In Cairo on Saturday, leaders of the Palestinian militant Hamas group and Arafat's Fatah movement met to discuss ending suicide attacks in Israel, an Egyptian official said. It was not immediately clear how long the talks were to last.
Former Palestinian security chief Samir Masharawi, a top Fatah official in the Gaza Strip, said Israeli forces had prevented him from leaving Gaza in order to take part. The army declined immediate comment.
Hamas and Fatah, which haven't met for years, were also discussing whether to recognize Arafat's Palestinian Authority as the sole representative of the Palestinian people, the Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Arafat has regularly condemned suicide attacks against civilians inside Israel, while Hamas argues Palestinians have no other effective means against the better armed Israeli army.
Also Saturday, troops seriously wounded two Palestinians when they opened fire on worshippers leaving a mosque in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza, Palestinian witnesses said. The army said it knew of no shooting in that area and had received no complaint of any incident.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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