Masked men shoot informers in Ramallah
Masked militiamen shot three alleged Palestinian informers for Israel in a West Bank town square today, and a large crowd quickly gathered to watch the wounded men writhing on the ground in pain.
One of the men, whose arm was covered in blood, recited a Koranic verse said by those near death as bystanders watched in Ramallah.
Some in the crowd tried to block approaching ambulances, but the three were eventually evacuated to hospital where one later died of his injuries. A second man was in a critical condition with stomach wounds, doctors said.
Witnesses said that five masked men had pulled the three alleged informers from their car in Clock Square and shot them. As the masked men fled the scene, they shouted that they were from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.
The gunmen accused the three men they shot of having helped Israel locate Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who was seized by Israeli forces last week in a Ramallah hideout.
Israel accused Barghouti of being behind many attacks on Israeli civilians.
