Israel Accused of Killing Member of Key Clan of Fatah's Al Aksa BrigadesOctober 14, 2002
A Palestinian member of a clan blamed for a series of shooting attacks at a Jerusalem neighborhood and the slayings of several Israeli civilians was killed when a public telephone exploded in his hand, Palestinian sources said.
Mohammed Shtewie Abayat was speaking Sunday on the phone just outside the Beit Jalla Hospital near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, when it blew up, killing him instantly, according to doctors.
Relatives said Abayat belonged to the Al Aksa Brigades, a militia group that has staged terror attacks against Israelis and is linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. He was a low-key member of the clan, whose other members were accused of leading the frequent shooting attacks last year on Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood.
Palestinians blamed Israel, as they have when two other members of the Abayat clan were killed over the past two years. The IDF declined to comment.
The IDF withdrew from the Bethlehem area in August, while hanging onto other parts of the West Bank as part of a crackdown on terrorism.
In Beit Jalla, Abayat's brother Moussa said the two had brought their mother to the hospital and 28-year-old Mohammed went outside to use the public telephone. He "started to speak on it and it suddenly blew up. Parts of his body were everywhere," Moussa Abayat said.
"I believe it is an assassination of my brother," he said.
Israel has carried out dozens of targeted killings against Palestinians suspected of violence against Israelis. Israel has acknowledged carrying out many attacks, though in some cases, it has refused to confirm or deny involvement.
Some of the killings have led to waves of Palestinian revenge attacks against the Israelis.
One member of the Abayat clan in Bethlehem, Atef Abayat, died when his car exploded in October 2001. Another, Hussein Abayat, was killed in an Israeli rocket attack in November 2000.
Both were accused of spearheading terror attacks against Israelis.
Yet another clan member, Ibrahim Mussa Abayat, was deported to Europe as part of a deal that ended a lengthy standoff between the IDF and Al Aksa Brigade members holed up inside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity in April.
Ibrahim Abayat is a suspect in the January slaying of Avi Boaz, a Brooklyn-born architect, kidnapped in Beit Jala on January 15. Boaz's bullet-ridden body was found a short time later in Beit Sahur, and the Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the killing. A group of Congressmen launched a campaign several months back to have Abayat extradited to the US for trial. He has also been accused of involvement in the June 2001 killing of IDF officer Yehuda Edri and the September 2001 murder of Sarit Amrani.
A number of Palestinians have been killed by exploding telephones in recent years.
In the prominent case, an exploding mobile phone killed Yehia Ayash, chief bombmaker for the Islamic group Hamas, on Jan. 5, 1996. Israel never claimed responsibility.
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