Israel's ' Hit List' Snubbed

09/04/2001| IslamWeb

JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - A stand-off between the Palestinian Authority and Israel over the arrest of activists wanted by each side aggravated tensions on Tuesday and gunfire rang out overnight in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.The Palestinian Authority has refused to arrest seven men on an Israeli most-wanted list that could mark them for death under Israel's widely condemned hunt-and-kill policy.
It called on the Jewish state to first take action against 50 Israeli citizens -- Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza -- whom Palestinians brand ``terrorists'' and ``killers.''
Israel said the seven Palestinian men it wants arrested are activists intending to ``continue to carry out attacks'' despite Israeli appeals to the Palestinian Authority to arrest them and other militants.
At least 513 Palestinians, 131 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since the start 10 months ago of a Palestinian revolt against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.
Jewish mourners buried a settler killed on Sunday by suspected Palestinian Resistance men as she drove along a West Bank road. Three others were wounded in the incident.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians, demanding revenge, marched in Tulkarm in a joint funeral for a Muslim activist assassinated in an Israeli missile strike in the West Bank city on Sunday, and for a second man killed in disputed circumstances. (Read photo caption below)
Violence appeared to taper off on Monday, although witnesses reported late-night gunfire at the entrance to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Egyptian-Israeli border and other isolated acts of violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan again urged Israel to stop using its armed forces to target individual Palestinians for death, saying the tactic deeply disturbed him and violated international law.
In a statement issued by his spokesman, Annan said Israel's policy of targeted killings could ``only further inflame an already very dangerous situation'' and appealed to the government of Israel to ``put an end to it.''
The White House called anew for Israelis and Palestinians to end the bloodshed, warning both sides that ``continuing down this path will only lead to disaster.''
Israel has assassinated some 60 activists since the uprising erupted in September after peace talks stalled.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Members of the Muslim Resistance group Hamas carry the remains of activist Amer Hodeiri during the funeral for Hodeiri and Palestinian policeman Mahdi Mizyed in the West Bank town of Tulkarem on August 6, 2001. Hodeiri was murdered after a helicopter missile strike on his car according to witnesses, and Mahdi Mizyed was shot by Israeli occupation troops while he was allegedly laying a bomb near the internationally illegal Jewish settlement of Einav in the West Bank. (Abed Omar Qusini/Reuters