Prominent Jewish settlers call for Arafat's assassination

Prominent Jewish settlers have asked their government to expel or assassinate Yasser Arafat as payback for a growing number of attacks on Israelis.

The call came in response to two Palestinian shooting ambushes in which two Jewish settlers were wounded.

Israel radio quoted Israeli security officials as saying Arafat's elite Force 17 unit was involved in Sunday's attacks.

Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, spokesman of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said Israeli commandos must target Arafat.

He commented: "Arafat is an enemy, he was never was a partner. After seven years of war and him sending his own people to kill, we need to assassinate him".

He added that as a second option, Israel could arrest and expel the Palestinian leader and send him back to Tunisia where he and other Palestinian leaders spent more than a decade of exile in the 1980's and early 1990's.