One of Palestine’s highest-ranking officials was killed in Gaza Strip

An international scandal may happen around the Middle East. An Israeli soldier reportedly shot an UN attendant by mistake on the West Bank. Forty-year-old man was accompanying an ambulance vehicle. The Palestinian sources informed that the Israeli soldiers shot the vehicle in Tulkarema area. ORT Russian television network reported that such things were happening against the background of the new acts of terrorism, carried out by the Palestinian kamikazes and the military actions of large scale, conducted by the Israeli military men.

Israel resumed the assault on Bethlehem this morning. The military helicopters hit the headquarters of the Palestinian security force. But the most important piece of news from the Middle East said that a representative of the Palestinian administration, one of the top military officials, a member of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, Ahmed al-Mefraj, was killed in Gaza Strip. The Palestinian sources reported that major-general was killed in the settlement of Hozaa. Mefraj was the highest-ranking Palestinian official, ever killed in the conflicts with the Israelis.

There are two versions of Mefraj’s death: he was either shot during the skirmish, or a shell that was shot by an Israeli tank hit his vehicle. According to eyewitnesses, the Israelis did not allow the ambulance vehicle attendants to render the medical aid to seriously wounded Mefraj, and the general died of bleeding.

The situation in the Middle East is out of control, and Washington is accelerating its activities there. American President George Bush decided to send his envoy Anthony Zinni to Israel in order to resume negotiations between the feuding parties. Zinni will go there in the beginning of the next week. In addition to that, American Vice President Dick Cheney will tour the Arab countries too.

Sergey Yugov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov