Three Suspected Informers Shot by Masked Men in Downtown Ramallah

Associated Press ^ | AP-ES-04-22-02 1210EDT | Associated Press

[TheOtherOne]

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Hooded gunmen pulled three alleged Palestinian informers for Israel from their cars and shot them in a downtown square Monday as an approving crowd looked on and motorists blared their horns.

Dozens of people watched as the wounded men writhed on the ground in pain, and some tried to block approaching ambulances. The three eventually were taken to Ramallah Hospital, where one died.

Witnesses said the gunmen accused the three of helping Israel locate Marwan Barghouti, a popular local leader in Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization whom Israeli forces seized last week in a Ramallah hide-out. Israel accuses Barghouti of being behind many attacks on Israelis.

The shooting quickly re-established the supremacy of radical Palestinian militias in Ramallah, just one day after Israel ended its three-week occupation of much of the city by withdrawing tanks and troops.

At least three gunmen pulled the alleged informers from a car in the downtown Clock Square. Cars stopped and blared their horns in apparent encouragement as the gunmen pumped round after round from automatic rifles at the three men on the ground.

As bystanders watched, one wounded man, his arm shot up and his shirt covered in blood, recited a Quranic verse said by those near death.

As the masked men fled the scene, they shouted they were from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement.

A foreign television crew filmed the shooting from the back of the crowd, capturing the gunmen backing away, continuing to fire at their targets and then fleeing.

The dead man was identified as Ibrahim Abdo, 26, of Jifna village near Ramallah.

Ambulances were kept back from the two others, whom hospital officials identified as Maysarah Nijem, 33, and Talat Qadada, 26, both of the Gaza Strip. One was in critical condition with stomach wounds, doctors said.

Dozens of accused collaborators have been executed in recent months. In early April, 10 Palestinians were killed for allegedly providing Israel information. One victim's body was hung from a monument in the center of Ramallah.

During the first anti-Israel uprising in the Palestinian territories in 1987-93, about 800 Palestinians accused of collaboration were killed.

AP-ES-04-22-02 1210EDT

[Political Junkie Too]

What?

You mean they didn't put them in a prison camp, feed them, give them prayer time, debate about whether to try them civilly or militarily, and let international observers meet them?

-PJ