IDF kills Tanzim chief, arrests 13 terror suspects

By Amos Harel
April 04, 2006
Haaretz
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/702086.html

A senior Fatah Tanzim militant was killed in an exchange of fire with soldiers near Bethlehem yesterday, according to the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian eyewitnesses. 

The gunman, identified as Raed Abayat, 31, was armed with an M-16 assault rifle. An explosive device was also found on his body. According to the Shin Bet security service, Abayat headed the Tanzim in Bethlehem and was wanted for his involvement in the murder of two Israeli citizens. 

Security services say Abayat, wanted for five years, was involved in the murder of two Israelis: Avi Boaz who was killed after entering the West Bank town of Beit Sahur in January 2002, and police Superintendent Moshe Dayan, shot dead in March 2002 near the Marsaba monastery, east of Bethlehem. 

Soldiers arrived at Abayat's house in the Bethlehem-area village of Beit Sahur and called on him to surrender. An IDF spokeswoman said the soldiers arrived at the building with the intention of arresting Abayat and fired at him inside the house after spotting him toting a rifle. Palestinian medics later confirmed his death. Soldiers also arrested Abayat's aide, Raed abu-Jora, who was wounded in the exchange of fire. 

Pre-dawn raids 

Meanwhile, about thirteen Palestinian terror suspects, including two women, were arrested across the West Bank before dawn yesterday. Three Islamic Jihad activists were arrested in a village south of Jenin, and two in the Nablus area. Five Tanzim activists were nabbed in the villages of Beit Furaik and Brujib. 

The IDF stepped up operations against Palestinian terror groups in the West Bank in the wake of a suicide bombing attack last week. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack in which four Israelis were killed. 

It was unclear whether Abayat was suspected of involvement in the bombing.