If you don't have Israelis available to kill,let it
out on your own people:
Informer killings raises fears of Wild West Bank
By Greg Myre, The Associated Press
HEBRON, West Bank - Palestinian militiamen killed three suspected collaborators today, raising concern of lawlessness in the West Bank. A mob strung up two of the battered, bullet-punctured bodies, and some brought their children to see the gruesome act of revenge.
Hooded vigilantes shot the three alleged informers and dumped their bound and gagged bodies on the same spot where a missile from an Israel helicopter gunship killed Marwan Zalloum, a commander of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades militia, in a targeted attack just hours before. The militia is linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
To read more about the IAF attack, click here.
The apparent killers warned that death would be the fate of all collaborators with Israel.
The Hebron shooting and similar action in Ramallah on Monday reflected the disintegration of authority in the Palestinian areas following Israel's three-week incursion, which virtually destroyed the security apparatus of Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
In Ramallah, a few uniformed Palestinian policemen reappeared on the streets Tuesday, two days after Israeli troops pulled out of most of the city. But the policemen were unarmed, and mostly engaged in directing traffic.
Armed militias had relative freedom in the cities even before the incursion, and several dozen alleged informers have been killed by fellow Palestinians in the past 19 months of fighting with Israel.
In Hebron, a large crowd quickly gathered around the corpses lying in Salam Street. One of the bodies was strung up by one leg from an electricity pylon and stripped by the crowd down to his green underwear, his blood-soaked shirt pulled over his head to reveal deep cuts and bruises.
Another body was strung up from a lamppost.
People stuffed burning cigarettes in the bullet holes in the torso. Some kicked, spat and threw rocks at the corpses.
The three men suffered multiple gunshot wounds in the head and body, with their hands tied behind their backs. Their limbs also appeared broken, though it was not clear whether the injuries were inflicted before or after they died.
Seven men in a car, all wearing woolen hoods or keffiyehs wrapped around their faces, claimed responsibility. The driver of the car, wearing a headband of the Aksa Martyrs Brigade, told a reporter that the killings were in revenge for Zalloum's death. Zalloum's bodyguard also was killed in the Israeli missile attack.
"The fate of all collaborators will be like this," said the masked gunman before speeding away.
Thousands of people parading past the bodies until a white municipal pickup truck came to take them away 3 1/2 hours later.
As each body was thrown into the back of the truck, the crowd clapped, cheered, whistled, and chanted "Allahu akbar," or God is great. Some men lifted small children in the air for a better look. Others climbed up the stairs of a nearby mosque or onto rooftops for an unobstructed view.
The three victims had been arrested previously on charges of being part of Israel's extensive network of informers, Palestinian security officials said. They were taken from a Palestinian prison for the showcase revenge killing, though it was unclear who handed the prisoners over to the Aksa Brigades.
jpost.com. |
