ARRESTS - Follow Israeli Killing

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BBC - Thursday, 18 October, 2001, 03:53 GMT 04:53 UK Arrests follow killing of Israeli minister

Rehavam Zeevi will be buried in Jerusalem on Thursday Palestinian security police are reported to have arrested at least two officials of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a militant Palestinian group which said it was behind the killing of an Israeli cabinet minister.

Israeli Tourism Minister Rahavam Zeevi was gunned down in a Jerusalem hotel on Wednesday.

The PFLP said the arrested men - one of whom has been named as Dr Rabah Muhana - were taken into custody in the southern Gaza Strip.

Palestinian security officials declined immediate comment on the reports.

The PFLP said it assassinated Zeevi in revenge for the killing of its leader, Abu Ali Mustafa, by Israeli forces in August.

The arrests came after Israel had demanded that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat hand over Zeevi's assassins "immediately" or face retaliation as a sponsor of terrorism.

Israel's inner cabinet also demanded that Mr Arafat and the Palestinian Authority outlaw radical groups.

Zeevi, the head of the right-wing National Union Party, was killed on the day that his resignation from cabinet was due to come into effect.

The 75-year-old former general had resigned from the government on Monday in protest at Israel's military pull-out from Hebron.

Zeevi had been having breakfast in the dining-room of Jerusalem's Hyatt hotel with his wife before he made his way up to their room on the eighth floor, police said.

Once there he was approached by two gunmen who shot him at close range.

Zeevi had no bodyguards with him at the time and the gunmen were able to escape.

When his wife followed him up to their room 10 minutes later she found him lying in a critical condition in front of the door, police said.

Mr Sharon told a subsequent special memorial session of parliament that he held Mr Arafat fully responsible for the assassination, as "he set the terrorism in motion".

In a retaliatory step, Israel banned Mr Arafat from using the international airport in Gaza.

US President George Bush condemned the killing "in the strongest terms", White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

The US also told Mr Arafat that he must act vigorously against the assassins of the Israeli minister.

Washington said the PFLP were operating openly in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

The PFLP also said was behind a suicide bombing near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday evening.

The bombing near kibbutz Nahal Oz injured two Israeli soldiers. It was the first time the secular leftist PFLP has admitted responsibility for a suicide bombin

-- Anonymous, October 18, 2001


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