OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 9 November — A Palestinian activist blew himself up yesterday, injuring two Israeli policemen as security forces closed in on him, Israeli officials said, while US President George W. Bush said he does not need Middle East peace to bring off his anti-terror war.
The Palestinian man blew himself up as Israeli special police units, on high alert since late Wednesday after a tip-off about an impending attack in northern Israel, closed in on a house in the West Bank village of Baka Al-Sharkieh.
Two border policemen were injured in the 3:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) blast in the village east of the Israeli coastal resort of Netanya. Residents told AFP by telephone the village was placed under a strict curfew afterward. Israeli public radio, quoting military sources, said the dead man was a member of Hamas.
A state of high alert was dropped but quickly reinstated amid reports that another activist was heading for Israel to blow himself up.
The blast came as the United States appeared to distance itself from the Middle East conflict, which it has been trying to dampen down since the Sept. 11 terror attacks on Washington and Manhattan.
In Nablus, two masked gunmen shot dead a suspected Palestinian collaborator in Tulkarem yesterday, Palestinian hospital officials and medics said.
The man, identified only as a lawyer, was shot twice in the head. He had been jailed twice on charges of collaborating with Israel, officials said.
In Gaza, Israeli soldiers fired at a vehicle carrying employees of Jordan’s representative office in Gaza, but no one was hurt, Jordan’s ambassador to the Palestinian Authority said.
Ambassador Goma Al-Abadi told Reuters the car made a high-speed dash to safety after the shooting erupted.
He said Jordan had contacted the Israeli government for clarification of the incident.
