Islamic Jihad leader killed during army operation

A senior member of the militant Islamic Jihad group was killed in an overnight army operation, Israeli security sources said today.

Iyad Sawalha, the man Israel has accused of orchestrating attacks in which 31 Israelis were killed, was himself killed during an exchange of fire at his house in the West Bank town of Jenin.

The operation came as Palestinian groups were to meet over the weekend in Cairo to discuss ending attacks inside Israel, officials from Fatah, Yasser Arafat’s movement, said.

A Fatah delegation plans to demand from the militant Hamas that they restrict their attacks to Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, instead of all Israelis, a senior Fatah official said on Friday.

The Jenin operation was a joint exercise between the Israeli security service and the army, Israeli security sources said on condition of anonymity.

The forces tracked Sawalha down to a house in Jenin - his home was demolished by troops in August - and called for him to come out, but only his wife left the building.

Next-door neighbour Soha Ekmel who was up early to prepare for Suhur, the morning meal before the day-long fast for the holy month of Ramadan, said troops came into her home and took her husband Khaled during the operation.

"They told his (Sawalha’s) wife to tell him to come out, I heard her say ‘Iyad, please come out, they’re threatening to kill me if you don’t’, There was no answer and they asked Khaled to do the same"” Ekmel said.

At one point Sawalha lobbed a hand grenade towards the troops, lightly injuring two soldiers. After a drawn-out gun battle Sawalha was shot and killed. Sawalha’s wife and Khaled Ekmel were taken away, Soha Ekmel said.

The army said Sawalha was responsible for two suicide attacks, one in June, a bus bombing that killed 17 Israelis, and another last month, when two teenagers drove a car laden with explosives into a bus in northern Israel, killing 14 Israelis.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat criticised the operation.

"It is a very big crime that was committed through military aggression against our people and against our (religious) holidays," Arafat told reporters at his Ramallah headquarters.

Israel reoccupied Jenin almost three weeks ago in a bid to track down militant groups after the October 25 suicide bombing claimed by Islamic Jihad.