Palestinians urge revenge for dead militants

FURIOUS Palestinians called for swift revenge attacks as they paid their last respects to seven militants, including three senior commanders, shot dead by Israeli troops in Nablus.

About 30,000 people packed the streets of Nablus chanting demands for revenge in the heart of Israel after the killings on Saturday, which were fiercely condemned by Palestinian premier Ahmed Qorei.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meanwhile hailed the army’s so-called Operation Full Court Press as an “impressive success in the fight against terrorism”.

All schools and shops were closed in Nablus as the bodies of the seven began their journey from the city’s hospital to the Martyrs Cemetery at around 10.30am.

Scores of masked gunmen from all the main Palestinian armed factions fired volleys into the air amid a sea of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade flags.

Among those who were being laid to rest was Nayef Abu Sharekh, the senior commander in the West Bank of Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a radical offshoot of the mainstream Fatah movement.

Fadi al-Bahti, a local leader of Islamic Jihad, and Jaffer al-Masri, a commander of Hamas’s armed wing, were also being buried.

“Our revenge will be tonight,” the crowds chanted in unison.

Many of the mourners went to the site of a hideout in Nablus’s Old City where the seven were killed in a shoot-out with Israeli troops on Saturday.

Israeli forces withdrew from Nablus and a curfew was lifted at dawn yesterday although the funerals were brought forward slightly for fear that the soldiers could soon return.

Mr Qorei condemned the killings of the “freedom fighters” as a “savage” act.

“This savage and ugly crime, which targeted a number of Palestinian freedom fighters after a four-day siege on Nablus, signifies that Israel is continuing its plan of killings and assassinations of all the freedom fighters,” Mr Qorei told reporters outside his offices in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“It’s a clear message to the whole world that Israel is either above the law or can be deterred and stopped.”

Many of the mourners also condemned the prospect of security co-operation between the Palestinian Authority and Arab countries such as Egypt and Jordan to help ensure stability after the planned withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank.

“Why is there security co-operation while we are under bullets?” they asked.

Mr Sharon meanwhile may be forced to bring the opposition Labour party into government in order to steer the Gaza pull-out plan through parliament.

Labour leader Shimon Peres confirmed in an interview yesterday that he had been invited to join a new broad-based government, but added that such a coalition could be several months away.

Mr Peres said he would join the government in return for changes in policy, including a commitment by Mr Sharon to a fixed timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.