Palestinian gunmen kill suspected informers

MASKED Palestinian gunmen killed two men suspected of being informers for Israel, then displayed their bodies in the central square of a West Bank refugee camp, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said.

Also, it was revealed yesterday amid continued violence in the West Bank that Israel planned to build 273 apartments in Jewish settlements.

The US-backed peace plan has sought a building freeze on the settlements.

Early yesterday, two suspected informers were killed in the Tulkarem refugee camp and the bodies were displayed for about 15 minutes before relatives took them away.

Dozens of suspected collaborators have been killed by fellow-Palestinians during three years of violence. The two men were abducted two weeks ago, along with six other men, on suspicion of giving away the hideout of a wanted member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade.

In other violence, a Palestinian man died yesterday of wounds suffered when a car he was travelling in exploded on Wednesday night in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus. Two other Palestinians, one of them a Hamas activist, were seriously injured when a car exploded, Palestinian security officials said.

The Peace Now group, which monitors settlements, said Israel’s Infrastructure Ministry has issued building tenders for 273 apartments in the West Bank settlements of Karnei Shomron, located deep within the northern West Bank, and Givat Zeev, which is near Jerusalem.

The US-backed ‘road map’ peace plan calls on Israel to stop building Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas where the Palestinians hope to establish an independent state.