GAZA CITY, 30 July 2004 — Israel assassinated a Palestinian fighter and his deputy in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday. Israel helicopter gunships fired a missile on a car carrying Amr Abu Sitteh, 32, head of the Aburish group, and his No. 2, Zaki Abu Zarqa, in Rafah. Both were burned to death inside the car.
Some 9,000 mourners later carried their bodies through the streets of their hometown of Khan Younis for burial.
The Aburish faction is a small armed group which mainly consists of dissidents from the mainstream Fatah movement and has its stronghold in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel had sought Abu Sitteh over the killing of a Jewish settler since 1992 and had made several requests to the Palestinian Authority for his arrest, Palestinian sources said.
The Israeli military confirmed that both men had been the target of “an air raid”, adding that Abu Sitteh had been responsible for “dozens” of anti-Israeli attacks over the past decade and had been “planning a ‘high-quality’ terrorist attack in the Gaza Strip.”
At the funeral of the two, mourners vowed revenge. “Revenge, revenge. Our answer will be in Tel Aviv,” the crowd chanted in unison.
In a separate development, former Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr had his right foot amputated in a German hospital after he was shot by unidentified assailants earlier this month in the West Bank
Amr’s daughter, Narmin, said: “My brother Marwan who accompanied my father to Germany told me he had his foot amputated yesterday.”
A Palestinian diplomat in Jordan said Wednesday that Amr had had his right leg amputated rather than just his foot.
“German surgeons amputated Mr. Amr’s right leg on Wednesday,” said Attalah Khairy, Palestinian charge d’affaires in Amman.
“The doctors were forced to amputate because of complications,” Khairy said, adding that the ex-minister was “now out of danger and in a good condition”.
