Southern Illinoisan · Carbondale, Illinois · 13 December 2000

CP-2000-010

Israel kills Palestinian in renewed hostilities

Associated Press, Jerusalem

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Transcribed from the clipping

“JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli soldiers gunned down a Palestinian activist Tuesday, witnesses said, the fourth West Bank leader killed in a little over a month — all considered political assassinations by the Palestinians.

The Israeli military refused to comment on the killing of Yousef Abu Swayeh, nor would it confirm that the 27-year-old was even on its wanted list. But Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told Israel radio earlier in the day that the only way to stop Palestinian attacks on Israelis is to ‘strike at those who are leading the shooting cells and their deputies.’

The killing in the West Bank town of Bethlehem came as Prime Minister Ehud Barak, beginning his re-election campaign, said he hoped conditions would soon be right for resuming peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

First, he said, violence must be substantially reduced… The violence, which has left more than 310 people dead, and Barak’s response to it, are at the center of the campaign… An activist in the Fatah movement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Abu Swayeh was gunned down in front of his home in a village near Bethlehem, witnesses said, demanding anonymity.

They said Israeli soldiers fired at him from a road under Israeli control and hit him with 17 bullets. At least three other regional Palestinian leaders have been killed since the current unrest began. Israel took responsibility for two of the killings. On Nov.

9, not far from where Abu Swayeh died, Israeli helicopters fired at a car carrying the local Fatah commander, Hussein Abayat, killing him and two women bystanders.

In Cairo, Egypt, the chairman of an international inquiry committee appointed by President Clinton said the group will not limit itself to reading reports and will gather evidence on the ground to determine the causes of the violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

‘We’ll receive information from the widest possible range of sources and we will make the appropriate judgment at the appropriate time on what is necessary,’ said former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell.”

Context added by this archive

The witnesses are quoted anonymously and the paper says why they asked for it. The two women killed beside Hussein Abayat are counted but not named.

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