NABLUS, West Bank, 16 October — An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a car in the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday, assassinating a Hamas activist and wounding another, Palestinian doctors and witnesses said.
The missile hit the car as it was traveling near an office belonging to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction. The car was destroyed in the blast and the Fatah office was slightly damaged.
Palestinian officials identified the dead man as Ahmed Marshoud, a member of Hamas wanted by Israel.
Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qorei warned that the truce with the Israelis could not survive if the Jewish state did not end its policy of assassinating Palestinian activists.
"If the Israelis do not stop the killings, which are being decided on at the highest level, then there will not be any cease-fire on the Palestinian side," Qorei told a session of the Palestinian legislative council.
In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair called yesterday for the creation of a "viable" Palestinian state after talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Blair said he and Arafat were "in complete agreement that now is the right time to reinvigorate the (peace) process" in the Middle East.
He urged a "just peace in which Israelis and Palestinians live side by side... putting behind them the bitterness of the past."
"We must seize this moment to make progress toward this end," Blair said, adding that it was time for all United Nations Security Council resolutions on the Middle East to be put in place.
Arafat called on Israel to resume negotiations toward a comprehensive resolution to all problems, including borders, the status of Jerusalem, water and refugees, consistent with UN resolutions.
"It is high time to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital," he said.
