The Forces of Martyr Omar al-Mukhtar, the military wing of Fateh-Intifada, has claimed responsibility Wednesday for the killing of a woman customs official in the Gaza Strip. In statement faxed to Albawaba.com in Amman Wednesday the group said that its “heroes …attacked with automatic weapon fire Wednesday morning a vehicle transporting a number of enemy security officials working near the Rafah frontier post.”
"All those aboard the car were hit and our forces withdrew unharmed," added the statement.
Israeli radio reported that a 24-year-old woman customs employee at the Rafah terminal on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was killed when her car came under Palestinian fire, according to AFP.
Her 17-year-old nephew who was with her in the car was lightly injured, public radio reported.
The agency added that the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's office said he viewed the killing "with great severity", adding that it cast doubt on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's intentions to quell the unrest.
The Damascus-based Fateh-Intifada is a Palestinian faction led by the pro-Syrian colonel Abu Mussa, who broke away from the mainstream PLO faction, Fateh, in the early eighties. It ardently opposes the peace process with Israel, and has claimed a number of operations against Israel since the start of the Aqsa Intifada – Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
