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Detailed Cases of
Alleged Assassinations
Case #1: Hussein Mohammed Salem Abayat
34,
from the village of al-Ta’amreh, Bethlehem district.
Married with 7 children
Killed on 9 November 2000 in Beit Sahour
A
baker by profession, Hussein Abayat was described by various sources as a
Fatah activist. He was arrested by Israel in July 1982 for selling
weapons, and released five years later in July 1987. According to a report
in Ha’aretz on 10 November 2000, “The Israeli Army says Abayat
masterminded and carried out many of the gunfire attacks in the Bethlehem
area in recent weeks – several soldiers were killed in these clashes.”
Head of the Central Command Major General Yitzhak Eitan said Abayat was
also responsible for much of the shooting on the south Jerusalem
settlement of Gilo, saying that he had “terrorized” residents of nearby
Beit Jala, forcing them to allow his men to shoot at Gilo from their
neighborhood.
On
1 December 2000, some of Hussein’s friends who witnessed the incident told
the PHRMG in a testimony on the assassination of Hussein:
“On Thursday 9.11.2000 we
decided to visit some of the Palestinian houses that were bombarded by the
Israeli army in Beit Sahour. We set out at nine in the morning. While we
were going around we noticed three Israeli military gunships overhead, to
the east of the skyline of Beit Sahour. First, we thought it was a normal
thing for the Israelis to monitor the area. When we reached the house of
the Shahin family, which had been bombarded the day before, on 8/11/2000,
we noticed that the warplanes were going around in circles in the sky as
if looking for a specific target. They came down closer and closer to the
ground. We decided to leave the place and hide somewhere away from
everyone.
It was about 10:30 a.m. when we took two cars: a Mitsubishi pickup
“magnum” model 1998, driven by Hussein with one passenger, Khaled Salahat,
and a Fiat Uno with three people in it. We drove for 50-70 meters when we
came to a turn in the road. Of course we slowed, and as we did so, the
Israeli warplanes fired three rockets, two at Hussein’s car and one at the
Fiat Uno. We saw Hussein’s car explode and fly several meters in the air.
Hussein was killed instantly, but Khaled Salahat jumped from the car as
soon as the rocket hit it. He was injured. The third rocket hit the Fiat
Uno from the front but didn’t explode.
Other civilians were killed and injured. Two Palestinian women who were
at the site were killed (Rahma Shahin, 52 years old, and Aziza Danoun, 53
years old), and 9 people were injured.”
Israeli officials confirmed that Abayat was their intended target. Major
General Yitzhak Eitan, Commander of Israeli military forces on the West
Bank, told the Herald Tribune,
“We hit somebody very senior. We will hit anyone who tries to hit us.”
Ephraim Sneh, the Israeli Deputy Defense Minister, commented: “Today, it
was a preemptive operation, because the terrorists who were killed were on
their way to another attack against Israelis. And no one is immune from
punishment.”
A number of
retaliatory killings by Palestinians of suspected collaborators
seem to have resulted from this assassination. On 12 November 2000, the
body of Kassem Khleef was found near the al-Ram checkpoint, between
Jerusalem and Ramallah. He was suspected of having supplied the Israeli
Shabak (General Security Services) with information regarding the
movements of Abayat and was probably killed by Palestinians. Another
suspected collaborator, Mohammad Deifallah al-Khatif, was arrested on 23
December 2000 by the Palestinian Authority’s Mukhabarat General
Intelligence. Mohammad Deifallah al-Khatif was also suspected of having
provided Israel with information that helped in planning the operation
that killed Abayat. On 13 January 2001, he was sentenced to death by
gunfire by a State Security Court. On the same day, Hanna Mansour Salameh,
19, and Wajih Mohammed Awadallah Abu Sneid, 19, were sentenced by the
State Security Court to life imprisonment with hard labor for taking part
in the operation against Abayat, and having informed the Israelis about
the movements and activities of other Palestinian leaders.
Case #2: Jamal
Abdel-Qader Hasan Abdel-Razek
30,
from Rafah in the Gaza Strip
Unmarried
Killed on 22 November
2000 at Morag junction
According
to information gathered by the PHRMG, Jamal Abd el-Razek was a well-known
Fatah activist in Rafah. He had joined the Fatah movement in December
1987, when the first intifada broke out, and participated daily in
demonstrations, strikes and protests against the Israeli occupation. He
also participated in the public and national committees that were
organized to coordinate efforts in support of the intifada. He was
arrested for the first time in 1989 and was detained for 18 months in
Ansar Camp in the Negev desert. He resumed his political struggle after
his release, was arrested again in 1990 and detained for 40 days. In 1991,
Jamal organized the “Black Panther” (Fatah)
armed militia that carried out several attacks against Israelis. He
subsequently became “wanted” by Israel and was arrested 8 months later in
Jabaliya. He was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment and served nearly 10
years until his release on 9 September 1999.
When the al-Aqsa Intifada erupted one year
later, Jamal once again organized military groups of Fatah
activists in the Rafah and Khan Yunis
districts. He took part in protests in Rafah, Netzarim, Morag, Erez and
Khan Yunis.
On 7 December 2000, his
brother Khaled, told the PHRMG the following:
“On
Wednesday 22 November, Jamal’s friend Awni Dheir came to pick up Jamal at
about 9 a.m. to go to their university. Jamal got up, washed, had tea with
his friend, put on his new jacket and showed it to his mother, who looked
at him for the last time. His father advised the two men to take the
eastern road to Khan Yunis away from Morag junction. At 9:30 they left.
Awni
drove his Honda, model 1999, with Jamal sitting beside him. When they
reached Morag junction, they didn’t see any Israeli tank or military
vehicle, but there were three helicopters in the sky overhead. When the
Honda reached the Morag checkpoint, there was another car (a white
Mercedes taxi) before it. Suddenly an Israeli military vehicle blocked the
way in front of the two cars, and the Israeli soldiers opened fire on the
two Palestinian cars, mainly on the Honda, and on Jamal in particular,
killing him and his friend Awni, and two Palestinians in the white
Mercedes (Sami Abu Laban and Na’el Liddawi). The Israeli soldiers fired at
Jamal from all sides, using live ammunition directed mainly on his head
and upper body. His head was smashed into pieces, and parts of his body
were scattered inside the car. The driver of the white Mercedes, Nahed
Fuju, escaped death by hiding under the steering wheel of his car.
After the brutal attack, an Israeli helicopter landed at the site and
took the bodies of the victims to the Toffah military post in Khan Yunis
to ensure that Jamal was among the victims. The Israeli army didn’t allow
any ambulances or medical teams to enter the area. The Israeli army
arrested the driver of the Mercedes and took him to prison in Ashkelon
[he was released on 28 November, 2000.] The assassination attack
occurred at 10:30 a.m., but the Israelis didn’t give us the victims’
bodies until two hours later, when they were transferred to Nasser
hospital in Khan Yunis. Most of the people who saw Jamal couldn’t
recognize him because his face wasn’t there, an indication of the
brutality of the Israelis.”
This version of events is corroborated by
the testimony given by the driver of the Mercedes, Nahed Farouk Foujou
(30). He told al-Risalah newspaper
on 30 November 2000, two days after his release by the Israelis:
“I left my house in the
early morning for work [as a taxi driver]. I was working for about one
hour before the two victims of the attack, Na’el Liddawi and Sami Abu
Laban, got in. They had a big, empty fuel can with them. I understood they
wanted to go to Khan Yunis to fill it with fuel for the bakery where they
worked, since there was a shortage of fuel in Rafah due to the Israeli
military closure. When we reached Morag Junction, an Israeli military
vehicle moved from the side of the road and blocked the road before us.
Then there was gunfire from all directions, like heavy rain, so I hid
under the seat, covered my head, and began to recite verses from the Holy
Qur’an. An Israeli soldier then opened the door of the taxi. When he saw
me, he said in Hebrew, ‘there is one still alive!’ He pulled me out of the
car, blindfolded me, and they took me to Gush Katif settlement. All
through the way the Israeli soldiers were beating and insulting me. They
took me to Ashkelon Prison inside Israel where they detained me for six
days for interrogation. They wanted me to confess that the two victims had
guns and were going to carry out an attack against the Israelis. They put
me in cells with collaborators in order to make me speak, but I resisted
all their techniques. Finally, they released me at Erez Crossing and I
walked towards Gaza. A family from Jabaliya camp gave me refuge and was
kind to me for some time.”
The Israeli army initially reported that “a cell of
four Fatah members” had been killed in an offensive action.
They claimed that their original goal had been to arrest the suspects,
rather than to assassinate them. Brigadier General Yair Naveh, Commander
of the Israeli forces in Gaza, further explained that the Palestinians
sensed something suspicious and Razek pulled out a Kalashnikov rifle and
attempted to open fire. The soldiers then fired back, killing him. His
driver, in an attempt to escape the gunfire, crashed into a Mercedes. The
collision brought both cars to a halt, at which point the Israeli soldiers
jumped out of their jeep and opened fire at Razek’s Hyundai.
The Palestinian Preventive Security (PSS)
announced on 17 December 2000 that it suspected Majdi Mikkawi, 25 years
old, of having reported the moves of Jamal Abdel-Razek to the Israelis.
Majdi Mikkawi is the uncle of Abdel-Razek. He was held by the Preventive
Security Services in Gaza until a State Security Court sentenced him to
death by firing squad on 11 January 2001. The sentence was carried out on
13 January 2001 at 11 a.m. at the Police Headquarters in
Gaza.
Case #3: Ibrahim Abdel
Karim Bani Odeh
34,
from the village of Tammoun near Nablus
Married with 5 children
Killed on 23 November
2000 in the center of Nablus
Ibrahim Bani Odeh was
allegedly a leader of the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of
Hamas. He had been arrested on 7 November 1998 and detained for two
years by the Palestinian Authority, until he was temporarily released on
22 November 2000 because the Palestinians feared that their facilities
might be bombed by Israel. Palestinians say Bani Odeh had been on the
Israeli “wanted” list for six months.
According to Palestinian
sources, Ibrahim Bani Odeh was a victim of the work of a distant cousin of
his, Allan Bani Odeh, 24, who collaborated with the Israeli intelligence
service, Shin Bet. In the previous 6 months, Allan had strengthened his
ties with Ibrahim, and let him drive his car every time he was out of
jail. The day after his release, on 23 November 2000, Allan called Ibrahim
to tell him that he needed to go to Ramallah for two days, and gave him
the keys of his car. Israeli agents had planted a bomb in the headrest,
and when Ibrahim began driving, it was detonated by remote control from an
Israeli military helicopter hovering above. Ibrahim Bani Odeh died
instantly.
Israeli sources deny any
involvement in his death, claiming that Ibrahim died in an explosion while
preparing a bomb. An earlier Palestinian report claimed an Israeli
air-to-ground missile had been fired at the car from a helicopter, but the
Governor of Nablus, Mahmoud Aloul, later corrected this account.
The Palestinian Preventive
Security (PSS) force arrested Allan Bani Odeh on 29 November 2000. It is
not clear whether he was abducted or whether he turned himself in to
authorities in Haifa. The Palestinian Preventive Security Services held
him for interrogation until his case was reviewed on 7 December 2000. The
Palestinian State Security Court that tried him appointed two defense
lawyers. According to LAW,
the appointed counsel were not practicing lawyers and were given only 15
minutes to review the case during an adjournment of the court session. The
trial occurred in Nablus, and was presided over by judge Fathi Abu Srour.
It lasted little more than two hours. Allan Bani Odeh was sentenced to
death for collaboration with Israel. He was executed by a firing squad on
13 January 2001 at 11 a.m. at the Police Headquarters in Nablus.
Case #4: Anwar Mahmoud
Ahmad Hamran
28,
from Arraba, near Jenin (living and studying in Nablus)
Married with 3 children
Killed on 11 December
2000 outside al-Quds University in Nablus
Anwar
Hamran was one of the leaders of the military branch of the Islamic Jihad.
He was considered close to the leader of the military branch for the
entire West Bank. He had been detained by Israel
for two years in 1990 for his participation in the first intifada, and he
joined the Islamic Jihad in prison. He went to Jordan after his release to
continue his studies, but was expelled shortly thereafter because of his
ongoing political activities, and was arrested a second time by Israel at
the Allenby Bridge on his way back home. He was detained for three and a
half years, and released in 1996. On 17 October 1998, he was arrested by
the mukhabarat (Palestinian
General Intelligence Service) under suspicion of having participated in
the suicide bombing in Mahane Yehuda,
West Jerusalem. He was detained until 11 October 2000.
On 11 December 2000, at about 1 p.m.,
Hamran left the small bookshop outside the university building where his
wife works to go to his car in the parking lot. He had walked only a few
meters when Israeli forces fired on him from Mount
Gerazim, about 300 meters away. Eyewitnesses testified that he was unarmed
and in an open space when he was killed, and one witness said that the
shooting continued after he had fallen to the ground: “His body was shaken
with every bullet that entered him.” Doctors confirmed that his body was
riddled with 19 bullets.
Case #5: Yousef Ahmad
Abu Sway
28,
from the village of Artas, Bethlehem
Married with 1 child
Killed on 12 December
2000 in al-Khader
Yousef
Ahmad Abu Sway was a Fatah activist in the Bethlehem area, and may have
had links to Abayat (see Case #1). He had been arrested by Israel on 25
October 1990, and detained for one year in connection with his activism
during the first intifada. He was arrested again in 1994 and detained for
10 months for illegal possession of weapons. Accused of having smuggled
weapons from Jordan through the Dead Sea area, he
was arrested by the Palestinian Preventive Security Service in 1998. He
was “wanted” by Israel, and remained in the hands of the Palestinian
Authority for 20 months in Jericho and Bethlehem. When the
second intifada broke out, he resumed his activities with the Fatah
movement while working in the Jewish settlement of Efrat.
On 12 December 2000, Abu Sway was on his way home
after work when he approached a bypass road near al-Khader village.
Suddenly a white Israeli Subaru stopped, four armed Israelis (possibly an
undercover unit) got out and shot at him. According to al-Ayyam,
his body was riddled with 17 bullets. According to a PHRMG fieldworker, 42
bullets were found in his body. The Israeli military post opposite the
site also opened fire from their machine-guns.
Five days later, on 17 December 2000,
Adnan Fathi Shahin (38) was abducted from his home in Artas, Bethlehem.
Shortly after, armed men, presumably Palestinian, shot him in the neck and
chest. He was suspected of having supplied the Israeli General Security
Service with information about Yousef Abu Sway.
Case #6: Abbas Othman
al-Ewiwi
26,
from Hebron
Unmarried
Killed on 13 December
2000 in Wadi al-Tuffah, Hebron
Abbas
al-Ewiwi was a member of the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigade of Hamas.
He had been held for 5 years in an Israeli prison during the first
intifada. He was later arrested by the Palestinian Authority and held for
several months.
His brother Hamzeh, 29 years old, told the
PHRMG on 18 December 2000:
“On Wednesday 13 December, I
was with Abbas in the shoe shop. I told him that there was a wooden board
that we borrowed from a neighbor, and we had to take it back to him. Abbas
took the board and went out. A few moments later, I heard gunfire. I went
out and saw Abbas on the ground, not moving. He had been killed. The
neighbors gathered and told me the Israelis shot my brother, probably from
their military post, 120 meters away at the entrance to al-Shuhada
[Martyrs’] Street. It was about 12 or 12:30
p.m. when this happened.”
According to doctors at al-Ahly Hospital,
three high-velocity bullets had hit al-Ewiwi; two of them went through his
chest and one came out his back.
The IDF declined to
comment on this incident.
Case #7: Hani Abu Bakra
31,
from Rafah in the Gaza Strip
Married with 3 children
Killed on 14 December
2000 in Deir el-Balah in the Gaza Strip
The Palestinian
Preventive Security Services (PSS) had detained Hani Abu Bakra from 1996
to 1998 alleging that he belonged to the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the
military branch of Hamas. A third-year student at the Islamic University
in Gaza, he started working as a taxi driver in the Gaza Strip just two
days before his death to support his family.
Ghada Abdel-Karim Daoud
(20) a female passenger in Abu Bakra’s car, told al-Quds newspaper:
“I left my house in Rafah at
about 7:45 a.m. in order to go to my college in Gaza. There were 6
passengers in the car driven by the victim. At an Israeli checkpoint in
Deir el-Balah, Abu Holi junction, the Israeli soldiers stopped the car and
asked the driver for his papers. It was about 8:35 a.m. After they checked
his papers, they opened fire from their automatic rifles and from a tank,
which was 2 ½ meters away from the car, killing the driver instantly and
wounding five others. I hid my head behind the car seat in front of me.
The soldiers shouted at me to get out but I didn’t understand. In the end
they waved for me to get out, so I did. I believe they meant to kill the
driver.”
On 25 December 2000, the PHRMG took the
testimony of one of the passengers in the car, Mohammed Ahmad al-Khatib,
37 years old:
“On Thursday 14 December
2000 at about seven in the morning, I left my house to go to the UNRWA
office in Khan Yunis, where I left my car the day before. I took a local
cab and sat in the middle seat. Leaving Khan Yunis, there were six
passengers in the car, including the driver [Hani Abu Bakra] and one
woman.
When we reached the Israeli
military checkpoint at Gush Qatif Junction, there was a Mercedes in front
of us. The Israeli soldier in the tank beside the road waved for the
Mercides to pass. Then he waved for us to go forward. The soldier on the
second tank inside the checkpoint waved for our car to stop, which it did.
We noticed there were five Israeli soldiers on the ground next to the
Israeli tank – this was unusual – and the Israeli soldier on top of the
tank was speaking on his mobile phone. The soldiers approached the car and
ordered the driver to get out. The driver wanted to get out his papers,
but suddenly the five soldiers opened fire directly at his head and chest.
The gunfire lasted for about five minutes, and I heard one of the soldiers
say in Hebrew “I’ve terminated him.” I was injured so I pulled myself out
of the car, and I lay in a pool of blood.
After a few minutes, two
Israeli soldiers came and took me to an ambulance that drove us (myself
and Abdallah Qanan, another passenger who was seriously injured) to Kfar
Darom settlement. An ambulance took me to Soroka Hospital in Beersheva
(inside Israel) where they performed surgery on my hand. I remained in the
hospital for three days with the police guarding my room. They didn’t
allow me to speak with anyone, not even by phone with my family. After 3
days, they put me in an ambulance, together with Abdallah Qanan, who
looked very ill and very tired. They drove back to Kfar Darom settlement
in the Gaza Strip, and contacted the Palestinian side where an ambulance
took me to the Red Crescent Hospital in Khan Yunis. Abdallah Qanan was
taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where he passed away two days
before the feast of Ramadan, on Monday 25 December, from the injuries he
had sustained in the attack. I stayed in the hospital for one week, and
now I am waiting to be transferred abroad for further medical treatment.”
A report by Amos Harel published in
Ha’aretz on 17 December 2000 reveals that a special anti-terror police
unit known by its Hebrew acronym “Yamam”
carried out the assassination of Abu Bakra. This unit, Harel adds, works
closely with the Israeli GSS.
Case
#8: Sa’ad Adham Taha al-Kharouf
37,
from Nablus
Married with 3 children
Killed on 14 December 2000 in Nablus
On Thursday 14 December 2000, Sa’ad
al-Kharouf was visiting his cousin Barham, his wife, and his
brother-in-law, Dr. Khalil al-Arda. Shortly before midnight, al-Kharouf
received a phone call from a man who identified himself as “Majdi”, who
was Kharouf’s retailer in Jerusalem before the intifada began. Majdi said
his car had broken down and Kharouf promised to come and get him. Dr.
al-Arda accompanied him.
Al-Kharouf’s cousin
had a bad feeling about the trip and called him every few minutes on his
cellular phone. The fourth time he called, someone answered in Hebrew and
promptly hung up. Al-Kharouf had been assassinated in a late-night ambush,
and al-Arda was seriously wounded in the attack. It is not clear whether
the target of the operation was Sa’ad al-Kharouf or Barham.
The
Israeli army’s spokesman claimed that Kharouf was an Islamic Jihad
activist, who was on his way to take part in hostile terrorist activity.
Case #9: Dr. Thabet Ahmad Thabet
50, from the village of Ramin, near
Tulkarem
Married with 3 children
Killed on 31 December 2000 in Tulkarem
Dr. Thabet Thabet was the
Secretary-General of the Fatah movement in Tulkarem, a member of the
Supreme Fatah Committee in the West Bank and the Director-General of
Inspection in the Palestinian Ministry of Health. He was a known peace
advocate.
On
31 December 2000 at about 10 a.m., Dr. Thabet left his house west of
Tulkarem to drive to the center of the city. As he was backing his car out
of his driveway, a special unit of the Israeli army opened fire on him
from a vehicle that was stationed some 300 meters away, next to
agricultural greenhouses located inside Area C, which is under Israeli
control. After the first wave of shooting, a few Israeli soldiers got out
of their vehicle and again fired at Dr. Thabet with their M-16
machine-guns.
They then returned to their vehicle and drove back into Israel through the
Taibeh checkpoint.
Medical sources in Tulkarem Hospital
reported that Dr. Thabet had been shot 15 times in his face, neck, arms
and back.
Israeli
sources claim that Dr. Thabet had been responsible for several attacks
directed against Israelis. The Israeli army first claimed that Thabet died
in an exchange of fire, or in the midst of cross fire. However, Ma’ariv
newspaper reported that Israeli PM Ehud Barak himself authorized the
assassination.
Thabet’s widow petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court ten days later, on 9
January 2001, to ban the army’s policy of assassinating Palestinians
believed connected to the recent violence.
On
14 March 2001, the Israeli GSS released information obtained in the
interrogation of a Palestinian suspect, contending that it showed that
Thabet had been a regional commander with authority over units of
Palestinian shooters in the Tulkarem area.
Case
#10: Masoud Hussein Mahmoud Ayad
54, from Gaza City
Killed on 13 February 2001 near Jabaliya
camp, Gaza
On 13 February 2001 at 9:45, Ayad was
traveling in his car on Salah ad-Din road parallel to Jabalyia camp in the
north of the Gaza strip, located inside Area A, which is under Palestinian
control. Two Apache attack helicopters fired four missiles at his vehicle.
Ayad died from shrapnel wounds to his head and body and was severely
burned. Six bystanders were also wounded in the attack. The Israeli army
immediately took responsibility for the strike.
According
to information released on the day of the assassination by the Israeli
army spokesperson,
Masoud Ayad was a Lieutenant-Colonel of Force 17 and was suspected of
heading an organization in Gaza connected to Hezbollah. The Israeli Army
accused him of carrying out attacks against Jewish settlements, planning
to kidnap Israelis and smuggling weapons and drugs. The Israeli Army
claims that he went to Lebanon in the summer of 2000 and was acting under
instructions of the Lebanese Hezbollah.
His brother, Said Hussein Ayad, denies these claims in his testimony given
to the PHRMG on 15 February 2001: “Mas’oud was a good man, he belonged to
Fatah movement, and he had nothing to do with the Hezbollah in Lebanon. He
was detained by Israel during the first intifada for two years.”
Case #11: Mahmoud Suleiman al-Madani
25, from the Balata refugee camp near
Nablus
Killed on 19 February 2001 in Balata camp
Mahmoud al-Madani was a senior member of
Hamas’ military wing. He had previously served a four-year prison term in
Israel and had been released in August 1998. He was held administrative
detention in Israel for six months in 1999. Israel accused him of having
planned a bus bombing in Hadera on 22 November 2000, as well as a bus
bombing in Netanya in January 2001.
On the afternoon of
Monday 19 February 2001, al-Madani left the mosque at the southern
entrance of the camp and was heading to his grocery store. He was gunned
down, either by sniper fire from the nearby IDF outpost at Tel ar-Ras, or
from a passing car.
Al-Madani was hit by four bullets in the upper body and taken to the
hospital in Nablus, where he died that evening. The Palestinian
Preventative Security Services (PSS) immediately arrested a group of
Palestinians in connection with the assassination.
Case #12: Mohammed ‘Atweh Mousa
Abdel-‘Al
27, from al-Salam neighborhood in Rafah,
South Gaza Strip
Married with 3 children, the youngest
just 1 week old
Killed on 2 April 2001 in Rafah, Gaza
Mohammed Abdel-‘Al was considered an
active member of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine. He was detained
without charges or trial in 1997 by the Palestinian Authority, briefly
released and arrested again in 1999, and was finally released
October 2000.
Israel accused him of planting bombs and of arming suicide bombers who
carried out a devastating attack inside Israel in 1995.
According to
Palestinian newspapers, Abdel-‘Al had been warned a few weeks before the
attack by a former collaborator that the Israeli GSS was watching him, and
he had become very cautious in his movements. Around noon on 2 April 2001,
at least two Israeli helicopters hovering above the Brazil neighborhood of
Rafah – just 200 meters away from the Egyptian border – fired three
missiles at the Peugeot car he was driving. Abdel-‘Al was killed
instantly, and the second occupant of the vehicle was seriously wounded.
Ephraim Sneh,
Israel’s deputy Defense Minister later said on Israel radio “he is the
type of person we must target if we are serious about combating the
violence. People involved in terror are targets.”
Case
#13: Iyad Muhammad Nayef Hardan
30, from the village of Arrabeh near
Jenin
Killed on 5 April
2001
Iyad Hardan was an activist in the
Islamic Jihad, and possibly a leader in the movement’s military wing, the
al-Quds Brigades. He had been detained twice by Israel, and had been
detained by the Palestinian Authority since 1998 without charges or trial.
According to
Israel, Hardan was the “most wanted” Palestinian,
because he was responsible for the suicide bombing carried out in the West
Jerusalem Mahane Yehuda Market in September 1998, which injured 23
Israelis. He was also held responsible for the killing of an Israeli
officer in Bedya, near Tulkarem, in June 1994, and was suspected of
organizing a group of militants from various organizations to carry out
attacks inside Israel.
Hardan was killed on 5 April 2001 when
the public telephone he was using exploded. The phone booth was located
just outside the detention center where he was being held, and Hardan used
it regularly.
Without directly admitting Israeli
responsibility, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said his government would wage
a constant struggle against terrorism. “Sometimes we will announce what we
did, sometimes we will not announce what we did. We don’t always have to
announce it,” he was quoted as saying in Ha’aretz, the following day.
Case
#14: Ahmad Khalil As’ad ‘Ayesh
34, from Artas village near Bethlehem
Married with one daughter
Killed on 5 May 2001 in Artas
Ahmad Khalil was a leader of the Islamic Jihad
movement and its representative to the Islamic National Coordination
Commission in Bethlehem. He had previously been detained by Israel for 8
years. On 5 May 2001, he was killed by IDF snipers.
Mohammed Hasan Abdallah Zahran, an electrician from Deheisheh refugee
camp and an eyewitness to the assassination, told the PHRMG on the same
day:
“On
5 May 2001, at about 8:15 in the morning, I was in the village of Artas
near the mosque, waiting for someone who agreed to meet with me so that I
could do some electrical work in his house. Suddenly I heard gunfire from
M-16 automatic machine gun. I saw two Israeli soldiers with one masked
civilian about 60 meters away on the hill opposite me [Abu Zeid hill], and
there were ten other Israeli soldiers about 50 meters away on another
hill, all armed with machine guns. The gunfire lasted for about a minute,
and then the group went up the hill and disappeared. The Israeli army had
built a temporary military outpost on the hill, and shortly after the
assassination was over, that post was removed.
A
few minutes later, people from the village gathered, and we discovered
that Ahmad Khalil had been killed inside his house, and his niece [Nisreen
Ismail Khalil ‘Ayesh, 4 years old] was lightly injured. There was no
gunfire from the Palestinians: there is nowhere they could shoot from, and
no target.
There were some men from the Palestinian Authority on the site, 4 members
of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service (PSS). They stood there
during the attack and watched everything. People asked them to shoot at
the soldiers who were going up the hill (walking up the hill takes 15 to
20 minutes), but the PSS men refused and said there were no orders to do
so.”
Case
#15: Mu’tassem Ahmad Mahmoud al-Sabbagh
28, from Jenin refugee camp
Killed
on 12 May 2001 in Jenin
Mu’tassem al-Sabbagh was a Fatah
leader in the Jenin area. On 12 May 2001 just before 11:30 am, he was
traveling in a car with Abdel-Karim Oweis and Yousef al-Rashedin, both
members of the mukhabarat (Palestinian General Intelligence) and
Fatah leaders, when an Israeli Apache helicopter fired at the car.
The first rocket hit the road in front of them, allowing for Oweis and
Rashedin to escape from the car. Al-Sabbagh’s was injured and he was
unable to extract himself from the car quickly enough. He died as the
vehicle was struck a second time.
Nasri Abdelkader al-Jaloudi (25) a police officer from Faku’a who was
standing nearby was also struck and died as a result of shrapnel wounds to
the head. In addition, about 15 civilians were injured in the attack,
mainly children returning home after classes.
Case
#16: Osama Jawabreh
29, from Nablus
Killed
on 24 June 2001 in Nablus
Osama Jawabreh was a Fatah activist and had
been arrested several times during the first intifada. According to
Israeli sources, he was also a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a
group that has taken responsibility for a number of shooting and bombing
attacks over the course of the present intifada. He was suspected to be an
explosives expert.
On
Sunday, 24 June 2001, at around 11 a.m., Jawabreh was using a public
telephone in the Old City of Nablus when the phone booth exploded. Two
children, Malak Shabaro (2) and her brother Amar Shabaro (4) were injured
by shrapnel from the explosion. Jawabreh regularly used this phone that
was located near his house in the center of Nablus.
The
Israeli government denied responsibility for the killing and claimed
Jawabreh was killed in a “work accident.”
However, his name is said to have been on a list of wanted Palestinians
handed over on 22 June by Avi Dichter, the head of the Israeli General
Security Services (GSS) to Jibril Rajoub, Palestinian security chief in
the West Bank. The Israeli media reported that Rajoub had been warned that
Israel would act on its own if the Palestinians did not arrest any suspect
within 24 hours.
Jibril Rajoub denies ever having received such a list.
Case
#17: Muhammad Ahmad Bisharat
28, from village of Tamoun
Case #18: Walid Rasmi Bisharat
19, from village of Tamoun
Case #19: Sameh Nuri Deeb Abu Hneish
23, of Beit Dajan in Nablus
Killed on 1 July 2001 near village of
Qabatia, Jenin district
According to Palestinian sources, Muhammad Bisharat was a member of the
Islamic Jihad movement, although Israeli sources claim he was an active
member of Hamas.
He was detained in Israel between 1993 and 1997, and was held responsible
for bombing attacks in Hadera, Netanya, and in the Jordan Valley
settlement of Mehola. No evidence was presented to support these charges.
Walid Bisharat and Sameh Abu Hneish were members of the Islamic Jihad
movement (Israeli sources say Fatah movement) and Abu Hneish was in the
Palestinian Authority’s Naval Force. Israeli sources claim that he was
also an expert in explosives.
On
Sunday 1 July 2001, close to midnight, all three men were traveling by car
to the village of Tamoun, near Jenin, when three Israeli Apache
helicopters fired at least five rockets at their car. The three occupants
of the car were killed instantly.
Israeli cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi later acknowledged the attack.
"These same people that were liquidated overnight in the framework of an
operation of self-defense, were, in part, people of the Palestinian
Authority," he told Israeli Army Radio on Monday 2 July. Israeli officials
claimed that the attack prevented a terrorist attack inside Israel,
although they offered no evidence to support this claim. Ten days earlier,
the Israeli Security Cabinet decided to resume the use of assassinations
as a “preventive measure” if justified by security considerations.
Case
#20: Fawwaz Bashir Badran
27, from Tulkarem
Married, 3 children
Killed on 13 July in downtown Tulkarem
Fawwaz Badran was the owner of an electronics store
in Tulkarem. He was not a known political activist.
On
Friday 13 July at about 2 pm, a car exploded next to his shop killing him
instantly.
The car carried Palestinian license plates, but the Palestinian police
later found that the car was not registered with the Palestinian
Authority.
Although Israel did not acknowledge having carried out the bombing,
Israeli sources did mention the deceased. According to Al-Haq, a
Palestinian human rights group, Israel believed Badran was involved in
planning two bombings in Netanya, and that he served as a middleman
between Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades and Hamas leaders in Damascus.
Hamas did indeed place an obituary in the papers for him, but no posters
have been put out and no formal statement was issued, as would have been
customary if Badran had indeed been a member of the Izzedin al-Qassam
brigades.
Case
#21: Omar Ahmed Sa’adeh
45, from Bethlehem
Married, 11 children
Killed on 17 July in Jabal al-Mawaleh,
Bethlehem
According to a report in the Israeli newspaper
Ha’aretz,
Omar Sa’adeh was the head of the Hamas military wing in Bethlehem.
On
Tuesday 17 July 2001, Omar Sa’adeh was feeding the pigeons and chickens he
kept in a shed next to his house. According to LAW,
there was a family gathering in his house to celebrate the release of his
brother Khaled Sa’adeh from Megiddo prison in Israel. At 3 p.m., two
Israeli Apache helicopters fired three rockets at the house, killing Omar,
his uncle Issaq Ahmad Sa’ade (51, 10 children), Taha ‘Issa al-Arouj (37, 5
children) and Omar’s cousin Mohammed Salah Sa’ade (29, 5 children). At
least ten others were injured during the attack, among them children, one
of whose condition was termed “critical.”
Among the other victims, Taha al-Arouj was also a known Hamas activist.
Issaq Sa’ade was a teacher of history and sociology at a Christian school
in Bethlehem and a member of the Israeli-Palestinian Center for Research
and Information (IPCRI), a well-known peace organization.
Israel later claimed that the victims included operatives of the Islamic
militant group Hamas, who were planning a major attack at the
closing ceremony on July 23 of the Maccabiah Games, the “Jewish Olympics”
taking place in Jerusalem. “We are talking about a clear preventive
operation,” said a military source quoted in Ha’aretz.
Five Palestinians were arrested by the Palestinian security forces in
Bethlehem under suspicion of having aided Israeli security in targeting
the Hamas activists. About an hour after the attack, a mortar shell (which
did not explode) was fired for the first time on the Jewish settlement of
Gilo.
Case
#22: Mustafa Yousef Mohammed Yassin
28, from village of Anin in Jenin
district
Killed
on 23 July 2001 in Anin village
Case
#23: Salah Eldin Darwazi
37, from Nablus
Married with 6 children
Killed on 25 July near the Ein Bet Ilma
refugee camp, Nablus district
Case
#24: Sheikh Jamal Mansour
42, from Balata refugee camp, near Nablus
Married with 4
children
Case #25: Sheikh Jamal Saleem
43, from Nablus
Married with 3
children
Both
were killed on 31 July 2001 in Nablus.
The
two Hamas leaders targeted by the Israeli Army attack were Sheikh Jamal
Mansour (42), a prominent leader of Hamas in Nablus, and Sheikh Jamal
Saleem (43), another well-known Hamas leader. According to Amnesty
International, the two had been held in administrative detention by
Israel.
In 1992, Jamal Mansour was deported from Israel to south Lebanon. After
his return from Lebanon in 1995, he was arrested and imprisoned at the
Ashkelon prison. Amnesty International took up Jamal Mansour’s case again
when he spent more than three years in detention without charge or trial.
The Palestinian Authority detained Mansour, who also worked as a
journalist, between 1997 and 2000. Jamal Saleem was a teacher of Islamic
education in Nablus. He was also deported to South Lebanon in 1992 and
following his return was arrested several times by the Israeli
Authorities.
At
approximately 2 p.m. on 31 July 2001, Israeli Apache helicopters fired
missiles on a six-floor building, directly hitting the Hamas-affiliated
Palestinian Media Office. On 24 August 2001, the Palestinian daily
newspaper al-Quds published the testimony of the brother of Sheikh Jamal
Saleem, Jihad Saleem al-Damouni, (25) the only survivor of the attack.
Al-Damouni told al-Quds, “The telephone rang one or two minutes before the
explosion in the office, and Fahim Dawabsheh, the secretary of Sheikh
Jamal Mansour, answered it and said a reporter from BBC wanted to talk to
Sheikh Jamal. At that moment, the two leaders were having an interview
with two journalists. As soon as Jamal Mansour took the telephone, the
missiles hit the office and killed 6 people inside, and two children
outside.”
The British Broadcasting Corporation denied that any of its staff had
contacted Sheikh Jamal Mansour in Nablus at the time of the attack.
Six other people were killed in the
missile attack. Omar Mansour (27) was a member of the Hamas movement and
the personal guard of Sheikh Jamal Mansour. Fahim Dawabsheh (32) was an
employee of the Palestinian Media Office. Bilal (8) and Ashraf (10)
Abdel-Mun’em were two brothers who were in the street outside the building
at the time of the attack. Also included among the victims were two
journalists. Mohammed al-Bishawi (26) worked for al-Najah Press Office in
Nablus and Othman al-Qatanani (25) worked for the Nablus Press Office.
Fifteen others were wounded in the attack.
In a press release dated 31 July 2001,
the spokesman of the Israeli army stated that the attack targeted the
Hamas commanders of the Northern West Bank, as well as leading activists
of the movement. The statement further noted that the “targets” of the
missile attack were responsible for a long string of deadly attacks in
which 37 Israeli citizens were killed and 376 wounded. In their press
release, the Israeli army also attributed to the above-mentioned
commanders the Dolphinarium bombing, which killed 22 on 1 June 2001 in
Tel-Aviv. They further observed that the names of the Hamas activists were
brought to the attention of the Palestinian Authority for the purpose of
their arrest. However, the Israeli Army notes, the Palestinian Authority
did not take any action to prevent further attacks by the Nablus
commanders.
Case
#26: Amer al-Hudeiri
22, from Tulkarem
Killed
on 5 August 2001 in Tulkarem
Amer
al-Hudeiri was a Hamas leader in Tulkarem and a third-year student at
al-Quds Open University. He was arrested by Israel in 1995 and 1998.
He was killed on 5 August 2001 when two
missiles were fired at his car by an Israeli combat helicopter while he
was traveling in Tulkarem. One missile made a direct hit, killing
al-Hudeiri instantly.
In an official statement dated 5 August
2001, the Israeli Defense Force recognized that they struck Amer
al-Hudeiri because he was a senior Hamas activist whom they suspected was
preparing to execute suicide attacks in Israel in the next few days. The
IDF stated that Amer al-Hudeiri’s was mentioned as a senior terrorist of
the Hamas leadership during interrogations of Hamas activists in the
Tulkarem area.
Case
#27: Naser Ismail Abu-Zeidiyeh
21, from Qalandia
refugee camp, north of Jerusalem
Killed
on 13 August 2001 Kufer Aqab, south of Ramallah.
Abu-Zeidiyeh
was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The Israeli police held him responsible for the July 2001 murder of Yuri
Gushchin, an 18-year-old West Jerusalem resident. The police had already
arrested three suspects in connection with this murder, and it appears
that a manhunt had been underway to capture Abu-Zeidiyeh, who lived in
Qalandia camp.
Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli
forces were waiting for Abu-Zeidiyeh at a checkpoint in the Samir-Amis
area on the main road between Jerusalem and Ramallah. When attempts to
stop him failed, Israeli forces chased his car and eventually shot him
south of Ramallah. He was wounded and was taken to Hadassah hospital in
Jerusalem, where he later died.
Case
#28: Imad Suleiman Abu-Sneineh
25, from the
Abu-Sneineh neighborhood, in Hebron
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