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Death in
Unclear Circumstances
In addition to the cases presented above, where the involvement of
Israel is documented in many of
the cases, the PHRMG has
also recorded the following cases that Palestinian sources regard as
assassinations. However, substantial doubts remain on the involvement of
Israel and other possible motives for the deaths of the following
individuals exist.
Case #1: Mahmoud Yousef al-Mughrabi
24,
from the Deheishe refugee camp, near Bethlehem
Single
Killed on 11 December
2000 in Beit Jala
Mahmoud al-Mughrabi was an active member
of Fatah in the Bethlehem District. He had never been imprisoned before.
On Monday 11 December, at dawn, he was shot at close range by an Israeli
unit in Talitha Qumi Street, a bypass road to the West of Beit Jala, which
is under Israeli control. He was hit in the head and chest and killed
instantly.
On 13 December, Palestinians who were with
Mahmoud when he was killed told the PHRMG:
“On Sunday 10 December we decided
to go to the tunnel area [opposite the Jewish settlement of Gilo] to
prepare and plant a bomb. We were three. At about 10:30 p.m. we started
our operation. We went to Doha area in Beit Jala, then through the
mountains to al-Amal school, then to the west through the fence, to a spot
overlooking the road leading to the tunnel main road. We entered area C
under Israeli rule, and sat in our place waiting for an Israeli vehicle to
pass, but nothing came. So we decided to walk towards the DCO
office. We walked for about 120 meters. Then we sat waiting for more than
an hour and a half. We saw a group of Israeli soldiers come to the area,
they had a dog with them. They soon saw the hole in the fence and looked
around for a few minutes. They went down to the other soldiers at the
checkpoint on the main road. We couldn’t do anything then, but go back the
same way we came, and this was exactly what the Israelis wanted. As soon
as we walked towards al-Amal school, we heard gunfire. Mahmoud was wounded
in his leg. We wanted to carry him to save him, but he said “You must run
away, hurry up and go fast, don’t worry about me, God will protect me.” He
gave us his gun, and we felt it was over, so we ran away very fast. It was
about 2 a.m. then. A few minutes later, we heard gunfire, 3 bullets were
shot and we realized that the Israelis must have killed Mahmoud. The 3
bullets were in his head, but when we had left him he was alive. They
killed Mahmoud in cold blood.”
No
other newspaper or human rights group has cited this case as an
assassination. According to the witnesses report, it seems as if the
deceased was captured by the IDF in an attempt to plant a bomb and killed
on the spot. If this were the case, then this incident does not fit the
PHRMG definition of an assassination, but merits investigation.
Case
#2: Samih al-Mal’abi
28,
from Qalandia refugee camp
Married with 2 children
Killed on 17 December
2000 in Qalandia
Samih
al-Mal’abi was a leading Fatah activist from the Qalandia refugee camp.
Several possible accounts of his death late on Sunday, 17 December 2000 or
early on Monday, 18 December 2000 circulate in the Palestinian community.
His brother Hassan told al-Quds newspaper
on 18 December:
“Samih was visiting his sister
when some people came and called him, saying they wanted to see him on a
private matter. He went out with them to the crushing plant area near the
camp, where they gave him a mobile telephone to hold, saying there would
be an important call for him soon. Unfortunately, the mobile phone was
bombed and it exploded, killing my brother.”
Inhabitants
of the camp ran to the site of the explosion in an isolated area south of
the camp, where they found al-Mal’abi’s body. According to witnesses, an
Israeli helicopter hovered over the camp.
Fatah officially contends that the killing was the
work of the Israeli GSS. Israeli security sources say that al-Mal’abi was
preparing a bomb that accidentally exploded,
killing him. Some residents of the camp agree with the Israeli version of
the incident.
Case #3: Rashid Haron Abu
al-Hassan
35, from the al-Far’a refugee camp near
Nablus
Married with 5 children
Found dead on 18 December 2000 near
Tulkarem
Rashid Abu Hassan was an investigator for
a local insurance company, and an active member of the Fatah
movement in his camp.
On Friday, 15 December 2000, after prayer,
he went to visit a friend in Tulkarem, who had phoned him earlier that
day. Nothing additional is known about his movements. The
mukhabarat (Palestinian General
Intelligence Service) found Abu Hassan’s body on Monday, 18 December 2000.
He had been stabbed several times and buried in a building under
construction in Nour Shams camp, near Tulkarem.
Fatah sources accused Israel of having
planned the killing, but the Palestinian security services are
investigating the circumstances of his death. Abu Hassan’s friend from
Nour Shams, who had taken part in the search for the body the night
before, was arrested in connection with the crime. A strong possibility
exists that Abu Hassan was killed for other reasons.
Case
#4: ‘Ayed Khaled Abu Harb
24, from Nour Shams refugee camp near
Tulkarem
Killed on 14
February 2001 near Ramin
Abu Harb was a member of the Palestinian
Naval police, and an active member of Fatah in the Nour Shams refugee
camp.
Palestinian security sources
claim that on 14 February 2001, Abu Harb died in an Israeli army ambush on
the main road between Tulkarem and Nablus near the village of Ramin in
area C (under Israeli control.) However, eyewitnesses claim that there was
an armed confrontation between armed Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.
Abu Harb was shot twice in the back and abdomen, and died in Tulkarem
Hospital.
Case
#5: Anwar Mustafa Mohammed Mer’i
35, from Qarawat Bani Zeid near Salfeet
Married with 2 daughters
Killed on 16 February 2001 in his house
Anwar Mer’i was a member of the
Palestinian Mukhabarat (General
Intelligence Service.)
On 16 February 2001, Mer’i was attacked
in his house and stabbed 13 times. The house is located in Area B, under
joint Israeli/Palestinian control. His wife discovered the body the next
morning.
Colonel Jamal Jibara, head of the
Mukhabarat General Intelligence in
Salfeet, claims that the attackers were collaborators with Israel who fled
to Israel after committing the crime. The Preventive Security (PSS) later
arrested six Palestinians in connection to the murder of Mer’i.
Case #6: Maher Jawabreh
24, from the
Al-Fara’a refugee camp, north of Nablus
Case #7: Abdul Rahman Mubarak
Shtewe
24, from the
Al-Fara’a refugee camp, north of Nablus
Case #8: Hikmat Abdul Karim Abul
Habal
27, from the
Al-Fara’a refugee camp, north of Nablus
Married with 3
children
All 3 people were killed on 30 July 2001
near Al-Fara’a in the Nablus district
According to Palestinian sources, the
three victims were members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the military
wing of Fatah Movement.
Maher Jawabreh was a lieutenant in the
Istikhbarat
(Palestinian Military Intelligence).
The two other men were identified as workers. Israeli officials held the
three men responsible for an explosion occurring in Tel-Aviv six months
earlier. Three other victims were counted; among them the owner of the
garage where the attack allegedly took place.
According to the same Palestinian sources, Israeli military
forces killed the six men around
1:15 a.m. on 30 July, as they gathered in a shed used for selling car
parts. There were conflicting reports about the way the assassination was
carried out. Residents of the nearby Al-Fara’a camp reported hearing a
loud explosion near the camp, which was followed by gunfire. Some
residents affirmed that Israeli helicopters launched rockets at the
Palestinians, while others stated that it was the gunfire from an Israeli
tank that killed the three men. At the time of the attack, Israeli
helicopters were spotted in the sky above Al-Fara’a. There are also
Israeli tanks stationed around the Alon Moreh settlement, east of
Al-Fara’a camp. The facts of the incident remain obscured and
responsibility for the incident cannot be confirmed.
Case #9: Samir Abu Ziyad
37, from the
Rafah refugee camp, Gaza Strip
Killed on 19
August 2001 in his house in Rafah, Gaza Strip
Samir Abu Ziyad was a Fatah activist and
a founder of the Popular Resistance Committee in the Rafah area.
On 19 August 2001 at around 11 pm, his
house was rocked by an explosion from an unknown source that killed him,
his son Suleiman (5) and his daughter Inas (7).
Initial reports by the Israeli army stated that his
house had been hit by a Palestinian mortar shell that fell short of its
target.
Later reports then stated that Abu Ziyad had been killed in an explosion
caused by a bomb he was preparing in his yard. But Palestinians insist
that he was assassinated by Israeli forces, which fired a missile at his
house. No proof has been offered to confirm either of these accounts.
Case
#10: Taiser Khatab
44, Gaza
Killed on 1
September 2001 in Gaza
Taiser Khatab was the director of the
office of the mukhabarat
General Intelligence Chief Amin al-Hindi and a member of Fatah.
On 1 September 2001 at around 8:30 am,
he was driving from his home in south Gaza to the office of the
Palestinian intelligence chief in north Gaza, when his car exploded.
Khatab and another GI officer present in the car were seriously wounded,
and three passers-by were also wounded by shrapnel. Khatab died in the
hospital as a result of his wounds.
Both the Israeli GSS and the Israeli army have
denied any involvement in Khatab’s death, and said it could also have been
the result of a “work accident” or of a struggle between Palestinian
organizations.
Case
#11: Iyad Lafi al-Akhras
28, from Shaboura
quarter in Rafah camp
Killed on 16 October 2001 in Rafah
Iyad al-Akhras was a Hamas activist,
member of the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades and also active in Rafah’s
“popular committees.” On 16 October 2001, he was killed in a suspicious
explosion that rocked his home. He may have been killed preparing
explosives in his home.
Case
#12: Abdallah Rashed al-Jaroushi
42, from Tulkarem
Killed on 31 October 2001 in Tulkarem
Abdallah Jaroushi was a senior Hamas
political activist and businessman. On 31 October 2001, Israeli tanks were
occupying parts of Tulkarem under full Palestinian control (Area A) in
retaliation for the murder of the Israeli Minister of Tourism Rehavam
Zeevi on 18 October 2001. According to Jaroushi’s son-in-law, an Israeli
tank opened fire from a distance of about 20 meters just as Jaroushi was
getting out of his car, in the eastern part of Tulkarem.
The Israeli army claims that soldiers at
the outpost recognized a car approaching them as one from which shots had
been fired on them in the past several days, and when the car approached,
the tank fired a shell at the car, killing the man as he tried to escape.
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