WEST BANK, Israel (27 Mar 2004) -- Hamas on Friday delivered new threats of revenge for the assassination of its founder, but had trouble carrying them out: Israel foiled a seaborne attack on a settlement, shooting dead two attackers in wetsuits, and a militant was killed in the West Bank when his explosives blew up prematurely. Also Friday, Palestinian leaders criticized the United States for vetoing a UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israel for killing Sheik Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Islamic militant group, in a Monday air strike. Palestinian officials said they considered the American veto to be a green light for Israel to continue targeting militants in air strikes that also have killed innocent bystanders. Thousands of Hamas supporters marched in two West Bank cities Friday, threatening revenge for Monday's missile strike on Yassin as he left a mosque in his wheelchair. In Ramallah, crowds shouted warnings for Israelis to prepare body bags. The terrorists lie slain on a Gaza beach yesterday before they could reach a Jewish settlement they targeted for mass murder. | | In a farewell video released by Hamas, two unidentified militants pose in wetsuits and scuba gear. Israeli troops foiled a seaborne assault on a beachfront settlement on Friday, killing two attackers. In Nablus, a few hundred men in black ski masks and military-style dress carried elaborate models of missiles. In the nearby Balata refugee camp, a militant in a car was torn apart when explosives he was carrying detonated accidentally, Palestinian security officials said. The blast killed Ahmed al-Abed of the militant Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the group said. Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers on patrol in Bethlehem shot and killed a Palestinian during a brief clash with a few dozen youths hurling stones near Rachel's tomb, the holy site revered by Jews as the burial site of the biblical matriarch. The military said troops fired at the man after he threw a fire bomb at an Israeli jeep, setting the vehicle on fire. In the attack in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians in wetsuits and flippers and armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades emerged from the Mediterranean and fired toward a beachfront Israeli settlement, the army said Friday. Soldiers guarding the settlement fired back, killing two attackers and wounding a third man who fled back into the sea. SOURCE - Calgary Herald |
