Netanyahu Says Remove Arafat's 'Terror Regime' November 11, 2002 08:28 AM ET

By Matt Spetalnick

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Monday for the removal of Yasser Arafat's "terror regime" after a Palestinian gunman killed five Israelis, including a mother and her two children, in a kibbutz.

The hawkish ex-premier's remarks were his most scathing attack on the Palestinian leadership since he was appointed last week after the collapse of a unity government and underlined the tensions facing a new U.S. peace mission to the region.

A gunman slipped overnight into Kibbutz Metzer, near the dividing line between northern Israel and the West Bank, and opened fire outside a dining hall, killing a woman visitor and the kibbutz's chief administrator.

The militant then burst into a house, shooting dead a 34-year-old woman in the doorway of her children's room and killing her two young sons, aged four and five, as they clutched covers over their head.

On Monday, Avi Ohayon staggered through the toy-filled room where his ex-wife and children died, then collapsed on a mattress when he spotted several small objects on one of the beds. "God help me," he screamed. "They killed a child who had a pacifier."

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Arafat's Fatah group, claimed responsibility. It said it was avenging Israel's killing of an Islamic militant leader, and vowed "more martyrdom attacks until occupation leaves our land."

Arafat's Palestinian Authority expressed "strong condemnation of the killing of civilians" at the kibbutz, which it said was carried out while a "brutal war machine" kills Palestinian men, women and children.

The raid on the collective farm, established by Jewish immigrants from Argentina in 1953, was shortly before the scheduled arrival of U.S. envoy David Satterfield to push a new peace "roadmap."

The proposal, part of efforts by an international "Quartet" made up of U.S., European Union, United Nations and Russian mediators, has drawn reservations from Palestinian officials and Israeli cabinet ministers, including Netanyahu.

Satterfield was due to arrive in Israel late on Monday to begin meetings with Israeli officials followed by talks with the Palestinians, a U.S. embassy spokesman said.

ARAFAT EXPULSION?

Israeli officials followed their policy of blaming the Palestinian leadership for the attack for failing to rein in militants waging a two-year revolt against Israeli occupation.

Netanyahu, challenging Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for leadership of their rightist Likud party ahead of an early general election, reminded Israelis he had been calling for some time for "the expulsion of Arafat's terror regime."

He told Army Radio that Israel "would find the proper time to do so," but taking such action depended on "international developments currently under way" -- apparently alluding to preparations for possible U.S. war against Iraq.

Israeli media reports have speculated Israel might expel Arafat in the heat of a U.S. campaign to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Sharon has promised President Bush not to harm or depose Arafat.

But Sharon could face growing right-wing pressure to act in the lead-up to elections, which Israel's parliament set on Monday for January 28, about nine months ahead of schedule.

In a stark reminder of how children on both sides have suffered during two years of bloodshed, Palestinian hospital officials said Mohammed Abu Naja, eight, died of his wounds from Israeli shelling in the Gaza Strip on October 17.

He was the seventh Palestinian civilian death stemming from the incident, which the Israeli army said was a response to gunmen firing on Israeli bulldozers. Militants say their attacks on Israelis are vengeance for Israeli raids.

The gunman who infiltrated Kibbutz Metzer first fired on a couple strolling near the dining room, killing Tirza Damari, 42. Yitzhak Dori, 44, the community's administrator, was on guard duty and was shot dead when he rushed to the scene.

Hearing gunfire, Revital Ohayon telephoned her ex-husband, who lives in a nearby town. Avi Ohayon said she managed to tell him she heard shooting before the line went dead.

By then, the gunman had apparently kicked in the door of the one-story house where the mother and her two children, Matan and Noam, lived. During the shooting, frightened neighbors hid in their homes with their lights off.

The kibbutz's security chief told reporters he shot at the gunman but he managed to escape.

At least 1,654 Palestinians and 631 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian revolt erupted in September 2000.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2002

Answers

Israelis Ponder Response to Kibbutz Attack Monday, November 11, 2002

KIBBUTZ METZER, Israel — Israeli leaders on Monday weighed how to retaliate after a Palestinian gunman crept into a communal farm and killed five Israelis, including a mother and her two young sons as she read them a bedtime story.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militant group loosely affiliated with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his long-standing call for "expelling Arafat's terror regime," and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with his new defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, to discuss a response.

Sharon and Mofaz then toured Kibbutz Metzer, including the bedroom of the slain boys, Noam Ohion, 4, and his brother Matam, 5.

A Sharon adviser, Raanan Gissin, said the response will be "within the parameters of the actions we have been taking in the past few months." That seemed to rule out expelling Arafat.

Sharon has assured the United States he would not expel or harm Arafat even though he and other top decision-makers support the idea.

The United States also wants to avoid antagonizing the Arab world and doesn't want to distract from its preparations for possible war with Iraq.

The attack raised tensions in advance of a visit this week by U.S. envoy David Satterfield, who plans to discuss a U.S.-backed plan aimed at restarting Mideast peace negotiations.

After going under a fence, the gunman reached the center of the community and entered a house where the lights were on, Lieber said.

He shot dead Revital Ohion, 34, and the two boys. She was reading a bedtime story to her children when she first heard shots, which led her to call her ex-husband, Avi Ohion, relatives said.

He heard the shots on the phone, and later collapsed in tears when he learned they had been killed, the relatives said.

The gunman left the house and continued in the direction of the communal dining room where he met a couple taking a walk, Lieber said. He shot and killed the woman, while the man managed to flee.

The kibbutz' mayor, Yitzhak Dori, 42, drove up in his car and was killed by the gunman, Lieber said.

"There are no words to describe this," said Roni Cohen, the slain children's uncle.

Terrified residents at Kibbutz Metzer spent the night huddled in their homes, fearful the gunman was still among them. By daybreak Monday, Israeli security forces said the attacker had fled, apparently to the nearby West Bank.

After Israeli security forces allowed kibbutz residents out of their homes Monday morning, they gathered in the community's streets, crying and comforting one another.

The shooting rampage began late Sunday night several hours after a car exploded near the farm, killing its two Palestinian occupants in what police believed was a failed suicide bombing.

"We have a mother and her two children ... who are no longer with us, and they are victims of a war that has no end," Doron Lieber, a member of the farming community, told Israel Radio.

Kibbutz Metzer is inside Israel proper, but is less than a mile from the border with northern West Bank, where many Palestinian attackers have come from.

A bullet hole had pierced the wooden door to the single-story stucco house which had been attacked. On the porch were bikes, a rabbit, a bird cage and posters of the two boys who were killed, one of them shown strumming a guitar.

The attack was a rare instance in which a Palestinian gunmen has been able to carry out an attack on a guarded community and escape without being killed himself.

"The terrorist managed to infiltrate, massacre people ... he was shot at but unfortunately wasn't hit and it seems from all the signs he escaped," David Tzur, a commander in the border police, told Israel Radio.

Members of the dovish community said they have had close relations with their Arab neighbors and support the establishment of a Palestinian state.

"We still have good relations [with the Arabs]," said Lieber, upset at reporters who asked him about local security arrangements.

In the afternoon village elders from nearby Israeli-Arab communities arrived in the kibbutz for a condolence visit.

The attack came on the same day that officials from Arafat's Fatah movement and the militant Hamas group launched talks in Cairo.

Fatah officials have said they were going to demand that Hamas halt suicide bombings inside Israel. However, Hamas says it will continue attacks, as does the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is loosely linked to Fatah.

"This attack was a message to the negotiators in Cairo that the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades will not stop its struggle and attacks against Israel," said a group spokesman in the northern West Bank, who gave his name as Abu Mujahid.

Earlier Sunday, not far from Kibbutz Metzer, a car exploded and killed the two Palestinian occupants just as suspicious Israeli police moved to stop the vehicle. It was not clear whether the Palestinians detonated the bomb intentionally or by accident, police said.

The car explosion was one of three instances Sunday in which Israeli authorities said they managed to prevent a planned suicide attack.

Throughout the West Bank, Israeli troops have been in or near Palestinian cities for nearly five months, imposing curfews and tough restrictions on Palestinian movements as part of an effort to keep militants from launching attacks.

Arafat has condemned suicide bombings, but says his security forces can't function with the Israeli troops currently controlling Palestinian areas.

Several hours after the kibbutz shooting, Israeli helicopters fired rockets into a large car repair shop in downtown Gaza City, witnesses said. The shop was empty at the time of the attack shortly. There were no reports of casualties.

An army spokesman said an Air Force helicopter fired four missiles at the shop, suspected of housing a weapons-making workshop.

Meanwhile, Israel and the Palestinians were preparing written responses to a U.S.-backed peace initiative that calls for a provisional Palestinian state by 2003 and a permanent state in 2005.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2002