Two Palestinians killed, others held by Israel

9.00am

TULKARM, West Bank - Israeli troops arrested at least four Palestinians near the West Bank town of Tulkarm on Thursday, hours after two Palestinians died in a nearby blast which Palestinian officials blamed on Israel.

Palestinian security sources originally told Reuters Israeli troops had blown up a Palestinian taxi at Bal'a village near Tulkarm, killing four passengers, two of them from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

Later, witnesses and Israeli security sources said the taxi's passengers were arrested, disagreeing only on the number of arrests.

Palestinian farmer Taleb Abu Dyak told Reuters that military helicopters and jeeps had forced the taxi to stop, and that four passengers were ordered out and blindfolded.

"The men were taken away and then the Israelis blew the vehicle up," Abu Dyak said.

The Israeli security sources said six Fatah-linked militants were arrested, and that their car was blown up because it was loaded with explosives intended for an attack within Israel.

Earlier, an Israeli helicopter gunship fired at least three missiles at the car of Palestinian militant leader Mu'tasen Hammad as it drove by a poultry farm in Anabta village near Tulkarm. Hammad and a civilian bystander, a chicken farmer, were killed.

The killings threatened to further inflame tensions just as United States envoy Anthony Zinni arrived in Jerusalem to try to end more than 17 months of Middle East bloodshed.

Hammad was a local leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, linked to Fatah. Two of Hammad's aides and another bystander were wounded, a Brigades member said.

The Brigades group has taken responsibility for most of the Palestinian attacks on Israelis carried out in the past two months, contributing to spiralling violence.

Israeli military sources said Hammad had worked closely with militants from Fatah and Islamic Jihad to plan attacks on Israelis and set up a bomb factory that prepared explosives belts for suicide bombers.

An hour after Hammad's death, thousands of Palestinians took part in his funeral procession in Tulkarm.

A member of the group told Reuters: "The retaliation is coming, God willing."

Israel has killed dozens of Palestinian militants in operations it says help prevent future attacks. Palestinians condemn them as assassinations that foment fresh violence in their uprising against Israeli occupation.

In January, Israel killed Raed al-Karmi, a senior Brigades member in Tulkarm. That set off a deadly cycle of revenge attacks and buried a three-week-old ceasefire effort.

- REUTERS

Feature: Middle East

Map

UN: Information on the Question of Palestine

Israel's Permanent Mission to the UN

Palestine's Permanent Observer Mission to the UN

Middle East Daily

Arabic News

Arabic Media Internet Network

Jerusalem Post

Israel Wire

US Department of State - Middle East Peace Process