Israeli air strike kills militant leader in West Bank

AN Israeli air strike in the West Bank killed a militant leader as Palestinians complained that Israel had confiscated thousands of acres of their land for the most controversial segment of its separation barrier.

Israel is considering building thousands more homes in West Bank settlements, in line with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to keep large chunks of the territory while giving up the Gaza Strip, security officials said yesterday.

An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a car in the Balata refugee camp next to the city of Nablus last night, killing Khalil Marshoud, the local leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a violent offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. The military said Marshoud was behind a number of attacks against Israelis.

Israel began building the barrier last year, to keep out Palestinian militants who have killed hundreds of Israelis since the outbreak of fighting in 2000. In some areas, the trenches, walls and fences run near Israel's old frontier with the West Bank, but elsewhere dip deep into the territory claimed by the Palestinians for a future state.

The latest land seizures are part of construction of a barrier segment near the Israeli settlement of Ariel, in the heart of the West Bank.

Palestinians say the barrier project is meant to swallow up large parts of the West Bank, pointing to the Ariel sector as a prime example.

If Israel builds the barrier to include Ariel on the "Israeli" side, it would mean cutting a wedge halfway through the northern part of the territory, because Ariel is in the middle.

With 18,000 residents, Ariel is the second-largest West Bank settlement. Maale Adumim, east of Jerusalem, has 26,000.

The United States is opposed to adding Ariel to Israel by means of the barrier, and Israel has so far avoided making a clear decision.

Asaf Shariv, Mr Sharon's spokesman, said that for now, only an east-west section of the barrier was being built, leaving the option of encircling Ariel separately a concept the Americans apparently do not oppose. The Ariel barrier project is already causing hardships for Palestinians.

Residents of the nearby Palestinian village of Azawiya were informed that 4,500 acres of land was being expropriated for a two-mile stretch of barrier, said Annan Elashkar, a Palestinian liaison officer with Israel.

Azawiya resident Khader Abdel Raouf, 65, said he had his 32 acres of olive groves seized.

Abdel Raouf said his family of 15 lived off the olive oil produced by the trees. "I have been planting and harvesting these olives since I was a small boy," he said in tears. "This land belongs to me and I belong to it."

Meanwhile, in a possible boost for Mr Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan, Israel's attorney general announced yesterday that he is closing a corruption investigation against the prime minister.

The opposition Labour Party, which supports a Gaza pullback, has said it would only consider joining Mr Sharon's coalition if he is cleared of corruption.

Mr Sharon needs Labour to restore his parliamentary majority. Several coalition hard-liners defected over the Gaza plan, leaving him with a minority government. In the meantime, Labour has prevented Mr Sharon's government from being toppled, by abstaining in no confidence votes in parliament.

Media reports said a decision to join the coalition could split Labour, and that only about 15 of the party's 19 MPs would follow Labour leader Shimon Peres into the government.