Cohorts Killed Bomb Maker, Palestinians Say

The master bomb maker for the militant wing of Hamas was killed by fellow members of the Islamic group in an internal power struggle, Palestinian officials declared Monday, exonerating Israel of involvement in his death.

An investigating committee has identified the killer and some of the accomplices in the death of Mohiedin Sharif, said Nabil Shaath, a Palestinian Authority Cabinet minister and peace negotiator. “They are people inside Hamas. They are very close to Sharif,” Shaath told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Palestinian officials said that five members of Hamas’ Iziddin al-Qassam military wing are under arrest in connection with last week’s killing and that a sixth was still at large.

Hamas rejected the findings as “lies” and renewed threats to avenge Sharif’s death. “They told us the same story they gave to the media, which is that they arrested five Hamas people who are behind the assassination of Sharif,” Abdulaziz Rantisi, a Hamas political leader, said after Palestinian officials briefed him on the investigation in Gaza City. “We told them that this is an unacceptable story.”

The clandestine Hamas military wing, meanwhile, delivered a leaflet to news agencies saying, “We reiterate to our people that the martyr’s blood will not be wasted.”

Sharif’s body was discovered next to an exploded Fiat in an industrial zone of Ramallah on March 29. Palestinian officials publicly identified him Wednesday and said that he had been shot to death three hours before the explosion.

Hamas and officials of the Palestinian Authority, including Shaath, quickly blamed Israel, whose agents killed Yehiya Ayash, Sharif’s predecessor, with an exploding telephone in 1996 and tried to kill a Hamas political leader in Jordan last year. Ayash’s death was answered with four Hamas suicide bombings that killed scores of Israelis in less than two weeks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had categorically denied any involvement by his government in Sharif’s death, called Monday’s announcement “a positive development” proving Israel’s innocence.

“It is regrettable that senior officials in the Palestinian Authority hastened to blame Israel. This is a thing which still could have serious implications,” he said, adding that the arrests demonstrated that “if the Palestinian Authority wants to, it can fight terrorism.”

*

Israel Television reported that Palestinian police have arrested 60 alleged Hamas activists in recent days. The case, as well as the arrests, has strained relations between Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s self-rule government, which is struggling to convince ordinary Palestinians that there is life left in the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Hamas said it holds the Palestinian Authority indirectly responsible for Sharif’s death. A Hamas leaflet distributed in Jordan on Monday accused the authority of fabricating evidence and said that Hamas “considers this an attempt to harm the struggle of the Hamas movement, its martyrs and sacrifices.”

Netanyahu has said that a Hamas attack now would end Israel’s efforts to revive peace negotiations and to hand over more occupied West Bank land to the Palestinians.

Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, one of Arafat’s most senior aides, briefed the Hamas political leadership and reportedly delivered an ultimatum that any violent retribution will be met with a serious crackdown on the movement.

“The Hamas leadership here has promised to convey our results to their leadership outside. I hope they will deal wisely with the situation to avoid any negative consequences,” Abdel-Rahim told reporters after meeting with the Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas is a religious-political movement with a large following in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It serves its supporters with schools, youth groups and health services.

Arafat has said that he tries to strike a balance between allowing the political movement to operate--therefore not angering its followers--and pursuing the military wing. But Israel says that Arafat has not seriously pursued the military wing, with the result that the threat of Hamas violence hangs over peace negotiations.

*

Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinian security chief in the West Bank, said the suspects in custody for Sharif’s death include people whom the bomb maker trained and others who helped hide him. Rajoub said that Sharif was fatally shot and that his killers then staged the car bomb explosion to cover up the assassination.

Israel Radio reported that Sharif apparently had tried to take control of Iziddin al-Qassam and met with resistance from Adel Awadallah, a bomb maker for the militant wing who allegedly shot Sharif. Awadallah is still at large.

Palestinian political analysts were divided over the plausibility of the official conclusion, with some still suspecting Israel.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Ghassan Khatib, an analyst with the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center. “What happened? The Palestinian Authority arrested 10 people and within days managed to discover five were involved?”

Khalil Shikaki, director of the Center for Palestine Research and Studies in the West Bank city of Nablus, said there is a precedent of infighting in the Islamic resistance and that an internal assassination is “conceivable.”

“If it is true, the Hamas leadership would want to quiet it down and not make a big fuss. They will deny it,” Shikaki said. “If it is not true, this will lead to a serious deterioration in the relationship between the Hamas leadership and Arafat.”

*

Times special correspondents Maher Abukhater in Ramallah and Fayed Abu Shammalah in Gaza City contributed to this report.