Posted on 06/30/2002 4:53:39 PM PDT by Dallas
NABLUS, West Bank, July 1 (Reuters) - The militant Islamic group Hamas has vowed to avenge Israel's killing of one of its top bomb-makers, threatening a new spasm of violence in a 21-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
Israeli special forces killed Muhanad al-Taher and one of his deputies in a raid on a house in the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday. Palestinians described Taher as "the Engineer-4," the head of Hamas's military wing in Nablus and a bomb-maker at the top of Israel's most-wanted list.
"The assassination will increase Hamas's determination to continue Jihad and resistance," Ismail Haniyah, a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, told Reuters. "Hamas will never forget the blood of its martyrs."
Israeli security sources said Taher, 26, and his men were responsible for the deaths of more than 100 Israelis in suicide bombings, including an attack on a Jerusalem city bus that killed 19 people nearly two weeks ago.
The Israeli strike followed the removal of 11 Jewish settler outposts in the West Bank ordered by Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who vowed to dismantle rogue settlements vulnerable to the Palestinian revolt.
Adding to the pressure on the Palestinians, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington was no longer talking to Yasser Arafat and had no plans to do so in the future.
U.S. President George W. Bush called in a speech last week for Arafat's replacement as Palestinian leader, saying his Authority was tainted by terrorism and corruption.
Arafat, speaking by satellite link to an audience in Switzerland, offered to meet Bush "any time, anywhere" to promote Middle East peace, despite the president's call for his removal.
Arafat, who has announced Palestinian elections for January, said it was impossible to carry out reforms demanded by the international community while Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territory remained "complete and total".
The executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, headed by Arafat, said on Sunday it rejected any attempts to sideline Arafat or his Palestinian Authority.
"The executive committee is confident that the whole civilised world will not accept the imposition of guardians on the Palestinian people," the committee said in a statement.
NABLUS RAID
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops surrounded the home of one of Taher's associates in Nablus, called on its occupants to evacuate the building and opened fire after most of them had left.
Taher and one of his deputies were killed and a third militant was wounded, Israeli security sources said.
Israel has killed dozens of Palestinian militants it says were behind attacks on Israelis. Palestinians have branded the killings "state-sponsored assassinations."
Across the West Bank, 11 Jewish settler outposts were dismantled peacefully after Ben-Eliezer vowed to remove at least 10 of the rogue settlements by Monday.
An Israeli security source said the outposts -- many of them uninhabited clusters of a few trailer homes -- were taken down in coordination with the settlers. But some Jewish settlers expressed outrage at the clearout.
"It's a sad sight. Every outpost was meant to establish a Jewish foothold...as opposed to the darkness and terror of the Arabs," settler Benny Katzover told Channel Two television.
OUTPOSTS ISOLATED
Ben-Eliezer said the outposts were too isolated to be protected and that up to 10 more would come down this month.
Analysts said Ben-Eliezer's move against settler caravans, whose proliferation has helped inflame Palestinians, aimed to defuse a backlash in his centre-left Labour Party over the current reoccupation of Palestinian cities.
Ben-Eliezer spearheaded the army's West Bank offensive in response to two Palestinian suicide bombings that killed 26 people in Israel on June 18 and 19, almost two years into the Palestinian revolt for statehood.
About 145 settlements with 200,000 residents have sprouted with Israeli government approval in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since their capture in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israeli peace activists opposed to settlements estimate that 60 other small outposts have been set up without permission.
Settlers claim a biblical right to the land. The Palestinians and most countries regard the settlements as illegal and an obstacle to Middle East peacemaking.
At least 1,430 Palestinians and 548 Israelis have been killed since the uprising against Israeli occupation began in September 2000 after talks on a Palestinian state stalled.
A big change in strategy by the Hamas kids.
Two terrorists dead, one wounded and hauled off for interogation. Not a bad days work.
Nice of these guys to identify themselves. It makes picking targets so much easier.
They only celebrate the death of "useless" martyrs. (Ever notice that most homicide bombers possess no marketable skills?)
Someone with bomb-making expertise is quite valuable and his death strikes a blow to the ragheads.
Does he have an official address? If yes, what the Israeli special forces are waiting for?
No sense to wait that insane murderers to take lives of hundreds of innocents before eliminating them.
It depends on who shared the bed with. If it was one of his fellow terrorist brethern, as opposed to sisters, he will qualify for male virgins.
Real bullshit Arab macho values real male friendship much more than a relationship with any slobbery bitch.
Perhaps, someone should tell them that all they get is dead, and what comes afterwards probably isn't too nice.
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