NABLUS - An explosion killed six Palestinians on Israel's most-wanted list in an attack in the West Bank yesterday.
An official from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, to which the six belonged, described the incident as an "assassination." But an Israeli cabinet official said Israel was not involved and that the blast may have been a failed attempt to prepare a bomb.
The deaths came hours after a day of violence at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site ended without loss of life.
Palestinian security officials earlier claimed that Israeli tank shells killed the six men in the West Bank village of Fara, close to the Jewish settlement of Alon Moreh about 25km from Jenin. Some of the officials said the men were in a house in the village, while others later reported that they were in a junkyard. A Reuters television cameraman in Jenin several hours after the blast said there were no signs of tank shells at the site.
Palestinian officials have said Israeli forces have killed more than 40 Palestinian activists in "assassination" operations since the start of the uprising. Israeli leaders describe such killings as "active defence" against Palestinians who plan or carry out attacks on Israelis.
In Jerusalem, plans by a radical Jewish group, the Temple Mount Faithful, to lay a cornerstone for a Third Jewish Temple at the Old City compound revered by Jews and Muslims, was the spark that lit an always short fuse in the holy city.
Palestinians on the mount, the Muslims' al-Haram al-Sharif , rained stones down on Jewish worshippers at the adjacent Western Wall. Israeli police stormed the compound but fired no live ammunition. Thirty-five Palestinians and 15 policemen were hurt.
- REUTERS
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Six Palestinian activists die in explosion
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