Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 22, 1993 TAG: 9310220051
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GAZA CITY, OCCUPIED GAZA STRIP LENGTH: Medium
The murder of Assad Saftawi - the third moderate Palestinian slain in the last month - posed a challenge to Arafat, who must exert control over Gaza before Israel's army starts withdrawing in December.
Saftawi's 12-year-old son watched as his father was gunned down in his car.
The boy had run out of the schoolyard and up to his father's car, when he noticed three masked gunmen on the other side. One fired a 9mm pistol, and the bullet hit Saftawi just below the eye.
"He turned to talk to them, but they shot again," said Ali Saftawi, still shaking with fear.
Armed members of the underground Fatah Hawks appeared at Saftawi's house after the slaying and fired several shots in the air as a salute to the fallen Palestinian leader. They vowed to avenge his slaying.
Palestinian leaders called for urgent meetings among factions to head off further violence in the wake of the historic accord with Israel signed Sept. 13 in Washington.
"We are on the brink of a serious degeneration of the situation," Hanan Ashrawi, spokeswoman for the Palestinian peace talks delegation, said. Others, like Gaza PLO official Zakariya al-Agha, predicted "civil war."
The killing, claimed by a previously unknown radical splinter group, cast a pall over the negotiations between the PLO and Israel at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba on implementing the self-rule plan for Palestinians.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB