Arabs Arrested in Killing of PLO Activist

Three Palestinians were arrested Saturday in the killing of a PLO activist for which Jewish extremists had initially claimed responsibility.

Police said Salman Zaamreh, 24, was shot during a robbery Sept. 7 and that the suspects did not have political motives.

Zaamreh was killed by men wearing Israeli army fatigues, and his family initially blamed Israeli soldiers. The army said no troops were in the area at the time.

Two Jewish extremist groups, Eyal and the Sword of David, had claimed responsibility for the shooting.

However, a senior Palestinian intelligence official had said that the killers might have been members of a local gang who--often sporting Israeli uniforms--had been raiding homes and terrorizing residents for six months.

The killing raised tensions between Palestinians and Jewish settlers in the Hebron area at a time when negotiators for Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization were deadlocked over the city’s future under Palestinian self-rule.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres expressed relief that the killers were apparently not Jews. “A load has been lifted from my heart,” he told Israel’s Army Radio.