GAZA CITY, 10 November 2002 — The Palestinian Authority feared yesterday that Israel would seize on a UN resolution on disarming Iraq to oust its leader, Yasser Arafat, as Israeli troops killed a top Palestinian activist in a West Bank gunbattle. “There shouldn’t be an aggression against Iraq ... we believe this UN Security Council resolution is tantamount to preparing for a war,” chief Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters.

“Israel will use it to physically hurt, kill or remove President Arafat as announced by Israel’s foreign minister and to destroy the peace process and the Palestinian Authority,” he added.

Newly appointed Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week that a US strike on Iraq would “enable us to get rid of Saddam Hussein and provide a good opportunity to get rid of Arafat.” Netanyahu, who favors the expulsion of Arafat from the Palestinian territories, made no mention of killing or hurting the Palestinian leader.

His comments were in contrast with the more cautious policy of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, his Likud party rival for the top job in upcoming elections.

Referring to the prospect of a new conflict in the Middle East, Erekat said “the region doesn’t need more wars, destructions and devastation ... the region is in dire need of stability and peace.” The 15-member Security Council unanimously passed Friday Resolution 1441 to send UN inspectors into Iraq and warned of “serious consequences” if Baghdad fails to meet disarmament obligations.

Iraq now has seven days to accept what the Council called “a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations.” Israel on Friday welcomed the vote, saying it showed the support of the international community for the US position.

In the West Bank, meanwhile, Israeli troops killed a Jenin chief of the armed branch of Islamic Jihad early yesterday, Palestinian and Israeli security sources said. Iyad Sawalha, 32, was killed during a battle that lasted an hour after soldiers surrounded the house he was in, the Palestinian sources said.

An Israeli statement confirmed Sawalha’s death, accusing him of responsibility for attacks on buses that claimed the lives of 31 people and were claimed by the Al-Qods Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian radical movement.

Following the second attack, the Israeli Army reoccupied the city and refugee camp of Jenin, failing to find Sawalha but arresting 165 wanted Palestinians. They finally tracked him down yesterday, holed up in a house in Jenin with his wife, and called on him to surrender, the Israeli statement said.

Meanwhile, representatives of Arafat’s Fatah movement left Ramallah for Cairo yesterday for new talks with Hamas, but analysts held out little hope the Islamic group would agree to halt its attacks against Israel. The Fatah delegation, headed by central committee member Zakaraia Al-Agha, was due to meet the head of Hamas’ politburo, Khaled Meshaal, today, for Egyptian-brokered talks.

A previous European-sponsored dialogue came close to agreeing a halt to attacks on Israeli civilians but was broken off after the death of Hamas’ military leader, Salah Shehade, in a July air raid on Gaza City. The agenda for the new talks included “ways of fighting the Israeli occupation, Hamas’ participation in Palestinian elections and in institutions of the Palestine Liberation Organization,” said Fatah official Samir Al-Mashrawi, whom Israel barred from attending the talks at the last minute.

“We know it will be difficult to reach an agreement at the meeting’s onset but the current situation and the challenges we are facing are such that they justify this dialogue, which be a long one,” said he. “We need to be firm but we are going there with an open mind. Our brothers in Hamas told us they were in the same state of mind.” (The Independent)