Suspected Hamas leader killed by Israeli tank

A Palestinian alleged to be responsible for the death of at 100 Israelis in suicide was killed when an Israeli tank shelled a house in the West Bank city of Nablus.

The army said special forces yesterday killed Mohammed Tahir, described as a local leader of the militant Islamic Hamas movement.

It blamed him for the June 18 attack on a Jerusalem bus, which killed 19 people, and the June 1, 2001, attack on a Tel Aviv disco where 21 died.

Palestinians described Tahir as one of the leading bombmakers in the Hamas military wing, Izzadine al Qassam.

The army said that during the attack, a Tahir aide was also killed and another Hamas activist seriously wounded.

Israel, meanwhile, started construction on a towering electronic fence that will protect three sides of Jerusalem against Palestinian attacks, Defence minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said during a visit to the southern edge of Jerusalem today.

‘‘I am happy that ... we have started with the project,’’ he said.

The Jerusalem fence, which will stretch 30 miles, is similar to one that will separate part of the West Bank from Israel further to the northwest.

Construction on that fence began earlier this month, part of a larger plan to construct barriers that will completely separate Israel from the West Bank a distance that covers around 215 miles.

Israel will first build the fence - which at some points will be about 15ft high - at the city’s northern and southern ends, which should take about three months, said Amos Yaron, director general of the Defence Ministry. Later it will build the barrier along the city’s east side.

Palestinians want east Jerusalem for a capital of a future state, and they oppose fencing off the city from the West Bank.

Roadblocks already have made it difficult for Palestinians to visit Jerusalem since violence began in September 2000.

Palestinian attackers have launched frequent attacks in the area. Gunmen have fired from the West Bank at Gilo, a nearby Jewish neighbourhood built on land Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War.

Jerusalem has been hit harder than any other Israeli city during the Palestinian uprising, and security forces have set up barricades to keep West Bank Palestinians from reaching Jerusalem.

As Israel attempts to guard against bombing and shooting attacks by Palestinians, Ben-Eliezer is overseeing several simultaneous security operations.

They include the army’s occupation of seven Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank, the building of the two separate security fences, and the dismantling of the illegal, isolated Jewish settlements that are difficult for the army to defend.

The army yesterday oversaw the evacuation of two tiny, unauthorised outposts for Jewish settlers in the southern West Bank, army radio reported.

Ben-Eliezer said other illegal settlements would also be demolished. Israeli officials said settlers were cooperating with the actions.

The second illegal outpost was outside the settlement of Maaleh Hever, army radio said.

Peace Now, an Israeli group opposed to the settlements, said about 40 illegal outposts have been established since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came to power last year. Sharon has been a leading proponent of settlements for decades.

Most unauthorised outposts consist only of a few trailers set on West Bank hilltops, and critics say the need to defend them places too great a burden on the army and further damages the prospects of an eventual deal with the Palestinians.

Israel has almost 150 government-authorized settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where about 210,000 Israelis live.

Palestinians, meanwhile, want all settlements evacuated and claim all of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a future Palestinian state.