Israel Wants to Try Detained Hamas Official

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said Friday that Israel wants the United States to turn over a detained Hamas official for trial--while Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority offered to give the man a home.

The United States announced Thursday that it had detained Mousa abu Marzuk, a political leader of the militant group that has claimed responsibility for killing dozens of Israelis since the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel signed a peace pact nearly two years ago.

Rabin told Israel Radio: “We are very interested in reaching a situation in which, first of all, if possible he will be extradited to us; in any case that it be dealt with by American law because President Clinton passed through a law in Congress that defines Hamas as a terrorist organization.”

Hamas sources said the Islamic militant group was behind the latest attack Monday in which a Palestinian bomber killed himself and six Israelis on a bus near Tel Aviv.

In a statement faxed to an international news agency, Hamas warned Washington against extraditing Abu Marzuk to Israel. It said it had never attacked U.S. interests.

Arafat’s spokesman, Marwan Kanafani, said he hoped the detention was not over Abu Marzuk’s political or religious convictions.

“The Palestinian National Authority will . . . naturally offer to accept brother Abu Marzuk, who is of Palestinian origin, in its territory if no place of residence is found for him,” Kanafani said.

Rabin said Israel is investigating whether there is enough evidence to support an indictment against Abu Marzuk on the basis of which it could request that he be extradited.

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In some 1997 stories, and stories from 2001 onward, Mousa abu Marzuk is referred to as Mousa abu Marzook.

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