Arabs Say Soldiers Killed at Least 1 at Hebron Mosque

Arab judges and lawyers investigating the Hebron massacre for the PLO said Wednesday that they believe soldiers fired at people and caused at least one death at the mosque, despite denials by Israeli officers.

Abdel Ghani Awawi, a lawyer on the 11-member Palestine Liberation Organization panel looking into the massacre, said the PLO panel agrees with the Israeli army that 34 Arabs were shot dead in Hebron on Feb. 25.

The PLO panel, which is boycotting the Israeli government inquiry into the massacre, counted 28 people killed by an Israeli settler inside the mosque. It said army gunfire killed one Arab outside the mosque, one in the nearby cemetery and four outside Ahli Hospital.

Israeli military officers testified at an official Israeli inquiry last week that the settler killed 29 people inside the mosque and that soldiers killed four outside the hospital and one in a neighborhood behind the mosque. They denied reports that soldiers shot at people trying to flee the mosque.

But three Palestinian witnesses said Diab Karaki, 23, was shot dead by soldiers as he fled the mosque. Amin Khalil Joulani, 17, said he was shot in the legs by soldiers at the mosque entrance.