Morocco protests to Israel over injury of Moroccan councillor

Morocco protested to Israeli authorities over last Thursday's incident in which a municipal official visiting Al-Khalil, Israeli army-controlled, was wounded by a bullet.

The Moroccan foreign affairs and cooperation ministry asked the Israeli authorities to immediately open an investigation.

Lahcen Ajouaoud, vice-president of the municipal council of Anza, near Agadir (southwestern Morocco), was hit by a bullet as he was visiting the Cave of the Patriarchs in Al-Khalil.

In a press conference on Friday, the Moroccan official who was operated on in a hospital in Jerusalem after receiving the first medicare in a guard-post said he would have preferred to die as a martyr.

The parliamentary group of the Socialist union of popular forces (USFP, participating in the Moroccan coalition government) condemned in a statement the aggression against the municipal official describing it as 'a "criminal act" that shows that the zionists are carrying on their policy of terror against Arab visitors to Palestine in their attempt to prevent contacts between the Palestinians and their Arab brethren.'

The socialist parliamentary group recalled the aggression against a visiting Jordanian parliamentary delegation in the area last month.

It is not yet clear who opened the fire. Israelis deny that their soldiers were involved in the shooting while the Moroccan delegation said only Israeli soldiers were around.

In 1994, the Muslim community was shocked when a settler killed 29 persons who were performing their morning prayers at Ibrahim mosque.