Hamas Deputy Dies After Blast, Israel Says

Israel said Thursday that a Muslim militant found dead after a blast in the West Bank was the deputy of one of its most wanted men and that he was killed while planting a roadside bomb.

A statement by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office stopped short of saying that Israeli forces had killed Mustafa Rawajbeh, a member of the Islamic militant group Hamas.

“He was killed last night while trying to plant an explosive charge along a road used by [Israeli] settlers and security forces,” the statement said without elaborating.

Rawajbeh was the longtime deputy of Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, a senior Hamas military leader, it said.

Israel tried to kill Abu Hanoud, No. 1 on its most-wanted list, in May by sending warplanes to bomb his Palestinian prison. The army said then that he had been slightly wounded and that Israel had tried to kill him twice before.

Outside the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian ambulance workers collected Rawajbeh’s dismembered body from among olive trees. Spent bullet casings were strewn around him.

Doctors said he was killed by a blast but that it was unclear whether it was caused by a tank shell or a bomb he was preparing. The army denied its tanks had fired in the area.

After Palestinian gunmen killed two Israelis at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 2, Israeli diplomatic sources said the army would resume an internationally condemned policy of hunting down and killing Palestinian militants.

In the West Bank late Thursday, two Palestinians were shot and wounded in their car. Israeli radio reported that Palestinian witnesses said the shots were fired from a passing Israeli vehicle.