PNA will continue manhunt of Hamas
Palestine, Politics, 10/2/1997

Palestinian sources said Thursday that the PNA will continue its manhunt of Hamas activists involved in military activities regardless of Israel's release of the spiritual leader of the movement, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, currently hospitalized in Jordan. "The PNA will not allow Hamas any freedom of activity from within the PNA areas and our decision to combat subversive activities is irreversible," the sources which requested anonymity told ArabicNews.com.

The sources expressed anger at the way Israel handled the release of Sheikh Yassin and said it was totally incomprehensible on Israel's part to ask the PNA to go ahead with arrests among Hamas leaders and yet decided to release Sheikh Yassin and deport him to Jordan, instead of allowing him to stay in the Gaza Strip among his wife and family.

Israeli political sources had noted earlier that Sheikh Yassin's release to Jordan may have been aimed at weakening PNA President Yasser Arafat, at a time when Israel had to look for every step possible to strengthen its authority and back his combat against Hamas and other groups opposed to the peace process.

Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources reiterated their belief that Israel had been trying to mislead the PNA into believing that the perpetrators of the last two suicide attacks in West Jerusalem had come from the West Bank, and precisely from the village of Assira Ash-Shamaliya. The sources insisted that the perpetrators of the two attacks had come from abroad and said Israel was responsible for killing the four Palestinians whom it declared as being the real perpetrators of the two bombings in Jerusalem, one last July 30 and the second on September 4.

In a statement issued in Gaza Tuesday night, the military arm of Hamas, known as the Brigades of Izziddin Al Qassam, said the four Palestinians whom Israel declared as the suicide bombers in West Jerusalem were in fact "killed by Israelis soldiers" and were not involved in the attacks in West Jerusalem. "The Israeli statement on the two attacks is full of lies and unfounded allegations," said the statement which confirmed earlier reports that the four Palestinians were abducted by Israeli soldiers from the village of Assira Ash-Shamaliya and killed by soldiers of a special Israeli army death squad after the bombings in West Jerusalem. The brigades said the decision to abduct and kill the four Palestinians was taken at the highest level in Israel with premier Benjamin Netanyahu personally involved "because he was looking for means to save his political career and embarrass the Palestine National Authority."

Previous Stories:
  Hamas questions suicide bombers' identities   (10/1/1997)
  SPECIAL REPORT part 1: The release of Sheikh Yassin   (10/1/1997)
  Hamas condemns Palestinian Authority operations   (9/30/1997)

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