Israel vows Kabul-like attacks on Palestine

JERUSALEM, OCTOBER 18: ISRAEL on Thursday demanded that the Palestinian Authority hand over the killers of a far-right Cabinet minister or suffer retribution akin to the US-led military strikes on Afghanistan.

Israel knows the identities of the minister’s killers and will hand a list of names to the Palestinian Authority within hours so they can be arrested, a senior Israeli diplomatic source said on Thursday. The source said that Israel’s security forces know who was behind the assassination of Tourism Minister Rahavam Zeevi at a Jerusalem hotel on Wednesday and that information would soon be handed over to the Palestinian Authority about it.

Israel, also flexed its military muscle, sending tanks and troops into Palestinian-ruled areas near Jenin and Ramallah before dawn on Thursday, halting on the outskirts of the West Bank cities. Gun battles later erupted near Jenin.

Israel’s Cabinet said early on Thursday it reserved the right to enter Palestinian-ruled territory in the West Bank and Gaza Strip whenever ‘‘there is an operational need to act against terror’’.

Cabinet secretary Gideon Saar said that Israel would ‘‘act against the Palestinian Authority in a way currently accepted by the international community to act against a leadership that supports terror’’ if Palestinian President Yasser Arafat does not turn over Zeevi’s killers. Saar was referring to the US air strikes on Afghanistan.

Yesterday, Palestinian police arrested two senior PFLP officials in the Gaza Strip after the group said that it was behind the assassination of the minister, the son of one of the officials said. (Reuters)